SPACE HEATER STARTED FIRE
Fire marshals determined through physical evidence and accounts from residents that the fire started from a portable electric heater in a bedroom of an apartment that spanned the second and third floors of the building. The building’s furnace was functioning, and the portable device that caught fire was being used to supplement central heating, they said.
Earlier in the day on the ABC News program Good Morning America, Adams said smoke spread swiftly to other parts of the building due to a faulty self-closing apartment door being left open, rather than shutting automatically as designed in order to help contain fires.
“There may have been a maintenance issue with this door, and that is going to be part of the ongoing investigation,” Adams said. “This is all going to come out during the investigation.
Investigators were also looking into the possibility that a door to the 15th floor stairway was not functioning as it should, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, adding that residents would have been safer if they stayed in their apartments rather than exiting down stairways.
At least two residents who spoke to Reuters said fire alarms went off in the building “periodically” or routinely and were not always heeded.
One survivor, John Maroney, 59, recounted he was awakened by firemen as his 13th-floor apartment filled with smoke and was given oxygen by emergency personnel after being ushered out of his unit.
“And then I learned about the fatalities, which is, you know, I’m still going through that. I’m still dealing with that,” he said standing at the door of the hotel room where he was staying afterwards.
His wife, who was at work at the time of the fire, has since returned to their unit and found no structural damage to their home. “I’m lucky. I’m still here and my wife is still here with me,” Maroney said.
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