A raging fire in the Bronx killed a one-year-old boy and left his brother and sister fighting for their lives in critical condition as their heartbroken father told the News Monday evening of his grief.
“His name is Liam,” said the visibly shaken dad, Kwesi Harris, 50, of his late son. “He was my heart. He was the youngest of 14 kids. I have three sets of twins,” said Harris as he rushed from work to St Barnabas Hospital.
The children were found by first responders and removed from a second-floor apartment. All three were rushed to Saint Barnabas Hospital where the one year-old baby was pronounced dead, police said. The boy and girl are both 6.
“I have all their names tattooed on my arm,” said Harris, a nurse and Guyanese immigrant. “But not Liam because he was just born,” rolling up his left sleeve to show the inked cursive script on his bicep. “ I’m still going to put name on my arm though.”
“The twins are doing better,“ he added. “Their hearts have come back.”
The afternoon blaze tore through a five-story building on Bainbridge Avenue .
“I smelled smoke and I saw through the gate the flames rising,“ said Teresa Duran 42 a social service worker who was outside the five story apartment building. “I started screaming get out there’s a fire get out.”
“There was a little girl on the sidewalk saying her brothers were stuck inside the bathroom,“ Duran said fighting tears “my baby brothers are stuck in there and they need help.”
The firefighters brought out three kids, two boys and one little girl,” Duran said. “They held them in the arms.”
The blaze broke out around 3:40 PM on Bainbridge Avenue between East 193rd and E. 194th St. One adult had serious injuries and another person minor injuries. Three firefighters were also treated for less serious injuries at a local hospital. Eighty firefighters in all helped put out the fire.
Firefighters had to go in through the roof because of the intensity of the blaze, said Malcolm Moore, FDNY Chief of Special Operations. He said firefighters were able to knock the blaze down to get a victim out.
“The fire rapidly extended up the stairs, through the bulkhead, the staircase on the top of the building, forcing people to the windows and other civilians to look for ways out,” he said. “We set up for a roof vault rescue.”
“I believe we had eight total injuries at this fire, three members, non critical, three red tagged serious, critically injured children,” Moore said. “We’re still waiting on status updates on that and two other civilians.”
Witnesses described a frightening scene.
“Black smoke was coming out of the second floor apartment,” said Tommy Lopez, 40 a supermarket maintenance worker.”A lady on the sidewalk was screaming for help. ‘ Help me my kids are in there.’”
“ I ran into the building and up through the black smoke.“ he said. “A big fireball came out into the hall.
“Nobody I mean, nobody could get into that Apartment,“ he said “it was too much.”
“We’ve have several of these fires lately where The occupants of the fire department have fled The apartment building and left the apartment door open. This appears to be the case here again,” said Moore. “If there’s one message I could deliver, it’s close the door.”
This is a developing story.
