Egypt extended on Monday its sincere condolences to the USA following the breakout of a fire in an apartment building in New York City that killed 19 people and injured about 63 others.
The country also expressed sympathy to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery for all the injured, and asserting its solidarity with the USA in this tragic accident, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
New York just experienced one of its worst blazes in its modern history, when a major fire broke out at a residential apartment building in the Bronx.
A malfunctioning electric space heater was the source of the fire. The heater was in the bedroom of a duplex apartment on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building. The fire consumed the room and then the entire apartment building.
About 200 members of the New York City Fire Department were deployed to stop the fire at the 19-storey building, with firefighters refusing to take a break from saving the building’s residents despite running out of air tanks.
Earlier on Sunday, officials said 32 people have been hospitalised with life-threatening injuries and some 60 people were injured in total as smoke drifted through the building during the cold winter morning.
The residential apartment building where the fire occurred is 50 years old and has 120 units, according to building records.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that the building had a largely Muslim population, with many immigrants from Gambia, a small nation on the west coast of Africa.
Adams said that one priority in the aftermath of the incident will be to make sure that Islamic funerals and burial rites are respected.
