The cause of the three-alarm blaze remains under investigation.
A fire swept through the top floor of a Bronx apartment building on Tuesday night, killing four people and injuring one, officials said.
The roof of the six-story apartment building at 1560 Grand Concourse near East Mount Eden Road was ablaze as firefighters responded to the call around 7:20 p.m.
The fire began in a sixth-floor apartment, and four women from two adjacent apartment units were transported to nearby BronxCare Health System in cardiac arrest, officials said. The police confirmed all four women died. Officials would not release the condition of the injured person, who was taken to the hospital.
The cause of the three-alarm blaze, which drew 140 firefighters from 33 units, was still under investigation, officials said.
Ana Almonte, 59, said she was at home at her fifth-floor apartment when the fire started one floor above her.
“People were going outside with no shoes on, no jackets on,” Ms. Almonte said in a phone interview.
Ms. Almonte, who works next door at the inpatient admissions at BronxCare Health System, which was previously called Bronx Lebanon Hospital, said that she, her son and her daughter knocked on their neighbors’ doors to tell them to evacuate the building.
She said that even though New Yorkers had been urged to practice social distancing during the coronavirus outbreak, many of her neighbors fled the building in their pajamas, without thinking of keeping a safe distance from other people.
“This is a desperate moment,” Ms. Almonte said. “You’re not thinking about that.”
A Fire Department spokesman said he could not comment on whether the building’s fire alarms were working and said the fire marshal’s office would be looking at that as part of the investigation.
The apartment building is owned by 1560 GC LLC, which listed the Bronx address of Chestnut Holdings of New York on its corporation filings with the state. No one answered the phone at the company’s office on Tuesday night and no emergency contact information was given on the property manager’s website.
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