A fire that began in the kitchen of a fifth-floor Harlem apartment killed two adults and four young children believed to be a family, said Brian Fitzgerald, spokesman for FDNY.
Police responded to a 911 call of a fire at about 1:40 a.m. early Wednesday morning at the Frederick Samuel Houses in Harlem on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. After firefighters put out the blaze, responding officers found six people unconscious and unresponsive in the rear bedroom areas, police said.
Emergency responders pronounced six people dead at the scene, including a 45-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man. Two girls ages 11 and 6 and two boys ages 8 and 3 were also found dead.
Fitzgerald described the victims as a mother, four children and another adult, although they don’t know what the relation of the other adult was.
Three others suffered minor smoke inhalation and were taken to area hospitals, Fitzgerald said. Not all of the tenants were displaced, and the Red Cross was called to the scene.
The cause of the fire will be determined by the NYC Fire Marshall, but there does not appear to be any signs of criminality, police said.