unspeakable tragedy, 12 people dead including a 3-year-old girl after a fire that raced through the bronx in this apartment building. when ha 3-year-old boy was playing with burners on a stove. the flames quickly spread up to the higher floors trapping several people. some jumped through safety through the fire escapes. giving us a baby, apartment 13, baby trapped. people trapped apartment 13. we have a baby in there. also apartment 6, people trapped. bunch of calls on this. fire multiple zones. we have a 1045 child. we have a second 1045 in front of the building. an adult. officials say several other people four critically. several firefighters were hurt. this was city s deadliest fire in more than 25 years.
scott mcclain is on the scene for us. such a terrible tragedy. officials said this was not the first time this child was caught playing with the stove. reporter: yeah, that s right, ana, this child had habit of history of playing with the burners on the stove according to the new york fire commissioner. this time deadly consequences. when the mother of the child who was also in the apartment at the time realized there was fire, she took her two children outside of the apartment, but left the door open. that allowed the flames to spread into the hallway and then into the stairwell, which according to the fire commissioner created a bit of a chimney effect allowing the flames to quickly rise to higher floors and trapping people on those upper floors, making it impossible for them to exit the building via the stairs. that means that most people got pushed out onto those fire exists, in fact, firefighters say when they arrived there were some 20 people waiting for them to come down off t
this is an absolute tragedy. you can see firefighters are still on scene. they have been here since minutes after this fire broke on out, 7:00 yesterday, on the first floor. they got here quickly. three minutes or less, according to city officials. but the flames seemed to spread even quicker. 150 plus firefighters ended up here on scene battling those flames. obviously not everybody managed to make it out. those who did had to climb down the fire escapes on the side of the building into absolutely bone-chilling temperatures. one of our local affiliates spoke to one woman who was waiting outside anxiously, as you can imagine, because she had gotten a text. the last text she got from her mom was from her mom saying she was trapped inside of a third floor apartment. all told, 12 people have been killed. there are others who have been injured. the ages of the victims range from 1 to 63 years old.
you can see firefighters are still on scene. they have been here since the flames first broke out shortly before 7:00 yesterday evening. on the first floor of of this building, which may help explain why the fire was so deadly. not everybody made it out alive. those who did, many had to climb down fire escapes into these bone chilling temperatures. according to public records, there were only four complaints against this building since 2004. none appear to be fire related. there are 29 suites inside. six open violations were registered with one city department. one had to do with a defective smoke detector, one a defective carbon monoxide detective. those were on the first floor. sit not clear if they were followed up on, fixed or if they
breaking news overnight fire officials in new york trying to determine what sparked the deadliest fire in new york city in the last 25 years. cnn s reporter at the scene. good morning, scott. reporter: good morning. the fire started on the first floor of this building, which is a stone s throw away from the bronx zoo. the fire department respond the quickly, three minutes or less according to city officials but the flames seemed to spread faster. 150 firefighters here battling the flames but not everybody who made it out. those who did had to climb down the fire escapes into bone chilling temperatures, our local affiliates reported speaking to one woman waiting outside frantically because the last text she received from her