Thirteen people were killed when a five-alarm fire engulfed an apartment building in the Bronx on Dec. 28, 2017. It was the deadliest blaze in New York City in more than a quarter of a century.Credit…Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Aug. 11, 2019
Five children were killed in a fire at a day care center in a two-story house in Erie, Pa. The city’s fire chief said the house had only one smoke detector — in the attic — and had overloaded extension cords running beneath a couch. The victims ranged in age from 9 months to 14 years old and were sleeping upstairs in the two-story house when the fire was reported.
Aug. 26, 2018
Ten children died when a fire broke out in an apartment building in the Little Village section of Chicago. The children were attending a sleepover at the time. The building’s owner was cited with more than 40 building code violations.
Dec. 28, 2017
Thirteen people died when a five-alarm fire engulfed an apartment building in the Bronx, the deadliest blaze in New York City in more than a quarter of a century. The fire started when a 3-year-old boy was playing with the burners of a stove, the authorities said at the time.
March 21, 2015
A hot plate warming food for the Sabbath sparked a fire that tore through the Brooklyn home of an Orthodox Jewish family, killing seven children. There were no smoke detectors on the first floor of the home where the fire broke out or on the second floor where the family members had been sleeping.
April 3, 2008
Ten people, including eight children, were killed when a fire swept through a home in Brockway, Pa., a rural town about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. The victims ranged in age from 4 months to 40 years old.
Oct. 20, 1991
A two-day firestorm ravaged the Oakland Hills in California’s East Bay, killing 25 people and destroying more than 3,000 homes. An Oakland fire battalion chief died fighting the fire, which caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage.
Dec. 24, 1989
A Christmas Eve fire at a high-rise hotel that had been converted into apartments for seniors in Johnson City, Tenn., killed 16 people, including 14 residents. The fire, which started in the living room of one of the apartments, injured 30 people, including 15 firefighters.
May 13, 1985
A police helicopter dropped a bomb on a rowhouse in West Philadelphia where members of the communal, anti-government group MOVE lived, an action that the City Council apologized for in 2020 after decades of intense criticism. Eleven people, including five children, were killed, and more than 60 nearby homes were destroyed by the fire.
July 5, 1982
A man with a lengthy criminal record and a history of mental illness intentionally started a fire in an apartment building in Waterbury, Conn., after an argument with a niece who lived there. The fire killed 14 people and displaced more than 100 residents. The man was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the deadly arson.