Seven children were killed and two other people were injured by a fire at a home in Brooklyn that authorities say may have been the result of a malfunctioning hot plate.
According to the Associated Press, firefighters received a call just before 12:30 a.m. this morning regarding the blaze in the Midwood neighborhood. The FDNY was able to contain the fire within an hour. FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro told CNN that the fire began in the kitchen, then rose:
The fire started in the first-floor kitchen and spread to the second floor, where the woman and eight children had been in at least five bedrooms, according to the fire commissioner.
Furthermore, Nigro added that there was no evidence of smoke detectors on the first or second floors of the home. Nigro told the Associated Press that a woman believed to be the children's mother survived by jumping from a second-story window with another teenager. Nigro added that all of the victims were between the ages of 5 and 15 years old.
CNN reports that both survivors are in critical condition at a local hospital.
[via Associated Press and CNN]
