Seven children die as ‘hot plate’ sparks New York fire

A “hot plate” keeping food warm in a kitchen has apparently sparked a fire that has killed seven children in their home in Brooklyn, New York City , according to authorities.

The New York City fire commissioner said on Saturday the victims were siblings, ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old.

Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the children were in their upstairs bedrooms when the fire swept up from the first floor shortly after midnight and engulfed the second floor as well.

Daniel Nigro speaks during a news conference

Nigro said that the children’s mother and one of her daughters also were in the second floor but jumped out of windows to flee the raging blaze, adding they were injured and in critical condition at a hospital.

“This is the largest tragedy by fire that this city has had in seven years,” Nigro said. “It’s a tragedy for this family, it’s a tragedy for this community, it’s a tragedy for the city.”

He said that the children’s father apparently was not at home at the time of the tragic incident.

The fire commissioner said the family had been using a “hot plate” device to keep food warm that malfunctioned because of an unspecified reason.

“I heard a woman yelling, ‘My kids are in there. Get them out, get them out!'” a neighbor, Nate Weber, said.

Debris lay scattered behind the house at the scene of a fire

In 2007, a similar incident of fire in New York City killed eight children and an adult in a 100-year-old building in a neighborhood where several African immigrant families lived.