13 dead, including 7 children, in Philadelphia fire at house converted into apartments, officials say - East Idaho News
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13 dead, including 7 children, in Philadelphia fire at house converted into apartments, officials say

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(CNN) — Thirteen people — including seven children — died Wednesday morning in a fire at a three-story row home in Philadelphia that was converted into two apartments, officials said.

Officials said two other people were injured and sent to hospitals because of the fire at the home, which records show is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, a municipal agency that leases homes to people with limited income.

“This is without a doubt one of the most tragic days in our city’s history — loss of so many people in such a tragic way,” Mayor Jim Kenney said at a news conference late Wednesday morning.

“Losing so many kids is just devastating. … Keep these babies in your prayers,” Kenney said.

Firefighters responded to flames around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday at the row house at 869 N. 23rd Street in the city’s Fairmount neighborhood.

Live updates: At least 13 dead in fire at Philadelphia row home

Firefighters found “heavy fire” in a kitchen area in front of the second floor, and there was “nothing slowing that fire from moving,” Philadelphia Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said.

Thirteen people were killed; two others were taken to hospitals; and eight people got out by themselves, Murphy said.

“It was terrible,” Murphy said. “This is probably one of the worst fires I ever been to.”

Twenty-six people lived in the three-story building — eight on the first floor, and 18 on the second and third floors, fire officials said.

The housing authority was not aware 26 people were living in the building, said Dinesh Indala, the agency’s senior executive vice president of operations. The agency is checking how many were allowed to live there, he said.

The cause of the fire will be investigated, Murphy said.

Philadelphia’s district attorney said the city “owes it to the victims, the survivors, and to all Philadelphians to conduct a thorough investigation into this travesty, so that we can make sure it never happens again.”

“I join Philadelphians in expressing my heartbreak over the tragic loss of life in Fairmount today. The deaths of 13 people, including 7 children, in a house fire are an unfathomable occurrence,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said.

Neighbor: ‘I just can’t wrap myself around it’

Neighbors and others — some sobbing — gathered outside the burned row house as firefighters and police worked the scene Wednesday morning, CNN affiliate WPVI reported.

Bill Richards, who said he’s lived on the block for 24 years, told WPVI that before he knew of the fire, he heard a woman yell, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” He then heard fire trucks and went outside.

“It’s very upsetting,” Richards told WPVI. “I just can’t wrap myself around it.”

Lindsay Hull told WPVI that she saw stretchers when she came up to the site at 7 a.m. A friend of hers lives next door to the row house, she said.

“That’s a house that has a lot of kids,” Hull told WPVI. “It’s sad.”

Some smoke detectors did not operate, official says

Murphy initially told reporters that four smoke detectors were in the building, “and none of them operated.”

Murphy later indicated that Philadelphia Housing Authority records showed that at least six battery-operated smoke detectors had been installed there from 2019 to 2020.

However, Indala, the housing authority official, said the agency had different information about the detectors.

One of the apartments, the “A unit,” had seven smoke detectors and three carbon monoxide detectors at its last inspection, Indala said. He did not specify the year of the inspection, and CNN has requested clarification.

The other apartment, the “B unit,” had six functional smoke detectors and three functional carbon monoxide detectors as of its last inspection in May 2021, Indala said.

Two batteries and two smoke detectors were replaced then, Indala said. Smoke detectors also were replaced in the B unit in an inspection in September 2019, according to Indala.

When a reporter asked why smoke detectors would not have worked if they were inspected in May 2021, Indala replied, “I don’t know if they were replaced or tampered with. … We are working with the fire department at this time to do further inspections.”

It wasn’t immediately clear which floors the A and B units covered.

Faulty smoke detectors are treated as emergencies and are replaced in 24 hours if requested, and the authority does inspections annually, Indala said.

Row home was legally subdivided, city official says

The row home has been legally subdivided into two apartments since the 1950s and has had no violations, according to a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections.

The home has had three minor complaints since 2019, all related to trash maintenance, department spokesperson Karen Guss said.

One complaint was about trash on the exterior of the property in September of 2021 and October 2021. A complaint about trash and poorly maintained interior surfaces was made in 2019, Guss said.

The building, according to records, was estimated to have been built in 1920.

The home is about 2.5 miles northwest of Philadelphia’s Center City district.

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