Fire in a first floor unit of a 16-story Brooklyn apartment building injured eight people, including two children fighting for their lives.
According to television station WABC 7, five of the eight people were from one family and the other three were neighbors in the same building visiting.
Fire in the Marlboro Houses on West 11th Street in the Gravesend section of the city were reported at 2 p.m., according to the TV station. Two of the victims are children who were critically injured, two other victims were seriously injured and four suffered minor injuries, WABC7 reported. The children range in age from 9 months old to 9 years old.
Security bars prevented neighbors and citizens from helping the victims, the station reported. The father and mother of the children kept running into the burning apartment until they physically could no longer, the station reported.
Officials told the station an air conditioner used to regulate the temperature in the apartment may have sparked the fire. It’s not clear if smoke alarms in the unit worked.
