At least 19 dead and dozens injured in NYC Bronx apartment fire

FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the fire began in an apartment that spans two floors -- the second and third floor of the building.

"The door to that apartment – unfortunately when the residents left – was left open, it did not close by itself. The smoke spread throughout the building, thus the tremendous loss of life and people fighting for their lives right now in hospitals all over the Bronx," Nigro said.

"The marshals have determined through physical evidence and through first-hand accounts through residents that this fire started in a bedroom in a portable electric heater."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the creation of a victims' compensation fund.

"There will be money to find new housing, burial costs and whatever we need because that’s what we do here in New York," she said.

"When there is a crisis in this city or state, we are in this together … And we won’t succeed if we’re not united," Adams said during a news conference.

Adams confirmed the building had a large Muslim population – with many residents from The Gambia – in the building.

“It appears as though this stemmed from a space heater,” he said.

Thomas Von Essen, former FDNY Commissioner, told CNN's Jim Acosta Sunday the fire at the Bronx apartment building traveled up the building as a result of stairwells and open doors.

"There had to be doors left open on different floors otherwise you wouldn’t get that volume of smoke on the upper floors," Von Essen said.

He added the cause of the fire, at this point, had to be something in an individual apartment.

"It would be contained to that apartment, some of the tenants already said, if it hadn’t been allowed out of the apartment. The doors are fireproof, the stairs are fireproof because they’re pretty safe buildings," Von Essen said.

"It just looks like a tragic panicking by a lot of the folks," he said. "People were in the stairwells, that’s like being in a chimney being overcome, and you just can’t get to them fast enough to save them, so I would imagine that they’re going to find a lot of these severely injured people in stairwells and some of the other folks on floors where the doors were left open."

Chanasia Hunter lives on the 10th floor of the Bronx apartment building that went up in flames Sunday.

She told CNN affiliate WABC it is not unusual to hear the fire alarm go off in their apartment complex. She says it's something residents are used to hearing.

She said the only way she found out the fire alarm was legitimate was when a person who lived on the third floor -- where the flames were burning -- called her.

"I looked out the back of the window and that’s where we see the fire just fighting outside the window, and they have to break open the windows to let people out," Hunter said.

"We heard screaming, we saw the windows bursting out … We saw people getting saved," she said.

Hunter said she was able to escape because officials knocked on her door. She said smoke was coming into people's apartments.

"I was coming down the stairs and saw a body sitting on the floor. This is crazy, this building has been here for years and this has never happened before," she said.

"I’m just sad because this is like a family," she said. "We lost a lot of lives, and it hurts very bad, especially children and even elders. I see these people every day, it’s hurtful."

Daisy Mitchell is a building resident of the residential apartment building in the Bronx that went up in flames Sunday. She lives on the 10th floor.

"I just hear people banging on doors saying ‘it’s a fire, it’s a fire,’ so I ain’t pay it no mind, but then when we opened that door the smoke just hit us, and we ran to the hallway to the exit and I just panicked, I got scared, even with the mask on," Mitchell told CNN affiliate WABC.

Mitchell showed reporters her hands, which were blackened from smoke. She said she got smoke up her nose.

She said she didn’t understand why she needed to leave her apartment if she’s on the 10th floor, when the fire took place on the second and third floor.

"A lot of people didn’t even come out of their apartment. It’s crazy," she said.

Mitchell told WABC she was really scared leaving her apartment.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted Sunday the fire in the Bronx was “horrifying and heartbreaking.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted on Sunday that she is "horrified" by the fire in the Bronx today.

Read the tweet:

Nineteen people have died as a result of the fire in the Bronx Sunday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a televised interview with CNN. 

The 19 dead include nine children, a city official with direct knowledge tells CNN’s Brynn Gingras.

At least 32 people were transported from the scene to local hospitals in “life-threatening condition,” Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said in an earlier press conference.

The 19 dead are from the 32 that left the scene in life-threatening condition.