A child playing with a cigarette lighter near a Christmas Tree may have started the deadly Philadelphia fire which has killed 12 people so far, including eight children.
A request for a court order filed last Wednesday revealed that “a boy 5 years old or younger was playing with a lighter and set a tree on fire“As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Wednesday morning’s fire ripped through townhomes in Fairmount, Philadelphia, and the victims are believed to include two mothers and their children, according to the aforementioned outlet.
Yesterday, US authorities updated the number of fatalities from the fire in the building and assured that eight children and four adults were killed in the incident in which two people were also seriously injured.
Philadelphia Fire Department Assistant Commissioner Craig Murphy explained during a press conference on Wednesday night that the two seriously injured people are in critical condition and that one of them is a minor.
One of the minors who was rescued with vital signs by firefighters later died, authorities reported. Eight other people were able to escape the building on their own.
According to the authorities, the fire started in the early morning of Wednesday in a three-story building divided into two units in which about 26 people lived: eight in a unit that occupied the first floor and part of the second and 18 in the second house located between the second and third floors.
The emergency services received the alert at 6:38 local time and when they arrived at the building, which is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, they found an “intense fire” that took an hour to control.
Firefighters said the building had four battery-operated smoke detectors but none were working. The last time the building was inspected was in 2020.
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