this is wake up call for all of our builders, do proper testing. make sure the complaints of repeated smoke alarms going off without any real smoke or fire. we need to make sure these systems operate because they save lives. so many lives lost here. critical staffing shortages at hospitals beginning to emerge around the country as the omicron variant pushes the health care system. look at those numbers. coronavirus hospitalizations approaching record levels in the u.s. this is notable. more children, many too young to be vaccinated are ending up in the hospital. that s also leading to staffing shortages nationwide as well. also this morning, fans remember bob saget. the actor known as america s dad for his role as danny tanner. he s died at the age of 65 years old. let s begin this morning with cnn national correspondent. she s outside the apartment
forefront of discussions today. the congress when he represents this area says he wants a task force made up area says he wants a task force made up of local, state and federal authorities to try to get to the bottom of what new laws and procedures need to be put in place. for instance, those portable heaters, we know they are responsible for many other fires as well in the past. looking again at that safety. then i think one of the keyissuesis that safety. then i think one of the key issues is building maintenance and safety and what happened here. for example, the owner and officials including new york s mayor said the smoke alarms were working but many residents complained about the fact that they went off too frequently. today became accustomed to ignoring those warnings from those smoke detectors. they also talk about how these doors again, this automatic lock that failed, that is a provision that is in place in all of the city. one provision that is not is to have sprinklers in r
asked god, please help us. help us. reporter: so andrea, mayor eric adams delivering a news briefing right now, literally just started in the last few seconds. he literally just said that he s received a call from president biden just a short time ago. andrea, i also have some news to report from a spokesperson from the property group that owns this building behind me. there have been several questions about whether there were proper sprinkle there was a sprinkler system here. there were sprinklers in the laundry facilities in a compacter area as required by code. the ownership group also said that the lock on that apartment door, the second and third floor apartment that first went up in flames, that it had been inspected in july of last year and that it seemed to be in working order. we have also been talking to several survivors, andrea, that said that the smoke detectors, the smoke alarms constantly went
accounts by the residents that this fire started in a bedroom in a portable electric heater. any questions that i can answer, i ll be happy to do that. functioning smoke detectors were there functioning smoke detectors? i heard someone ask about the heat. the heat was on in the building. it was being used to supplement the building heat. there were smoke alarms throughout the building. the first call that came in was due to a neighbor hearing a smoke alarm and looking and seeing the smoke and calling. commissioner, there were reports that this was a very frequently malfunctioning smoke alarm and that s why many of the residents may not have had urgency to leave. we will look into that, but i cannot confirm that now. there are reports also that
about whether they were working properly? yes. we were told and instructed that there were self-closing doors. we just need to look at the door to that apartment to see if there was any form of malfunction. we can t make that determination until the fire marshalls conduct their investigation. but the doors in the building did have self-closing mechanism. we are just looking at that specific door. there was one tenant who said that actually the smoke alarms went off frequently in this building. so it was normal to assume that it was nothing because it so often was nothing. what concern does that raise for you? that s part of the investigation. we re going to look at the system and ensure that the alarm system didn t repeatedly malfunction. and this is a wakeup call for all of our buildings. do property testing, make sure complaints are are he peted, smoke alarms going off without any real smoke or fire. we need to make sure these