commissioner thomas ven esen. thanks for being with us. a lot of moving parts this evening, and just this awful situation in the bronx. we ve been talking about this with polo sandoval on the scene over the last hour or so how this is a fairly historic fire in terms of just the extent, the damage, the death toll, and so on for new york city, which is saying a lot. give us a sense as to how challenging this was for the crews on the scene, the first responders dealing with all of that. well, jim, you mentioned that one door, the fire department, had to be left open. i would guess that a lot of doors are left open in the stairwells and everywhere else. those stairwells, they re supposed to be a safe stairwell. it looks like the fire went up that stairwell and got into all the floors above. so there had to be doors left
the unification of this city come into this family and this community to let you know we are here and we re going to be here for you. thank you very much. and you ve been listening to an update from the mayor of new york, eric adams, the new york governor, new york senator chuck schumer and other officials on the deadly fire that killed 19 people including nine children in the deadliest fire in new york city in some 30 years. and with me now is the former fdny commissioner thomas von essen. commissioner, it sounds as though what we were hearing from both the fire commissioner and the mayor is that this fire appears to have been tragically started by a malfunctioning electric heater, a space heater in a bedroom. my goodness, i m old enough to know how dangerous those space heaters can be and how people are warned over and over again, you know, be careful with those
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
population, sheikh mussah is here that knows many of the residents. they come from gambia. and we want to make sure that we re sensitive to the cultural needs. the office is going to coordinate that we respect the burial rites of the muslim community as well as others. so, our message is clear today. during a tragedy, we are going to be here for each other. there s more to be discovered, the fdny is doing a thorough investigation. the commissioner will update us on the latest. but it appears as though this stemmed from a space heater. but the marshals are here, they will give us a thorough investigation to determine exactly what took place and what we can do better not to have this repeated. so, at this time, i want to just thank the governor of the state
help. that s who we ve been for the history of our city and on this awful night that doesn t change. thank you so much, senator. and i think the senator raised a good point. this is a heavy immigrant community, and we want to make sure sheikh mussah let the residents know that if you need assistance, your names will not be turned over to i.c.e. or any other institution. we want people to be comfortable in coming forward, and it s imperative that we connect with those on the ground to make sure they get that message and that word out. so we want to allow and have commissioner nigro to give technical information. thank you, mayor. and let me just say that my