Fire investigators on Friday continued searching for the cause of a fast-moving blaze that ripped through a five-story Bronx apartment building, killing 12 people, including four children.
The dead included three girls, ages 1, 2 and 7, and an unidentified boy, police said. Three women, ages 19, 37 and 63, four unidentified men and one unidentified woman also perished.
Their identities have not yet been released, but fire officials told News 4 that at least three of the victims were from the same family.
Four others were critically injured after the five-alarm blaze on Prospect Avenue near East 187th Street, which Mayor Bill de Blasio called an “unspeakable tragedy.”
A dozen others were rescued with varying injuries but were expected to survive.
The fire broke out a little before 7 p.m. on the first floor of the brick building in the Belmont section and quickly spread upstairs, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told a news conference.
The cause remains under investigation, but investigators said a natural gas line may have fueled the flames.
