A man was killed and six firefighters were wounded when a five-alarm inferno ripped through a Bronx apartment building early Thursday, according to FDNY and NYPD officials.
The blaze erupted on the top floor and cockloft of the building on East 184th Street near Bassford Avenue in Belmont around 5:30 a.m., according to the fire department.
Video posted on the FDNY’s X account shows heavy flames shooting out of the windows on the building’s upper floors.
“Members stretched multiple handlines to the top floor and into the cockloft space, opening up to reach fire in an area that is inherently difficult to access,” Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods told reporters.
The flames rapidly intensified, drawing a five-alarm response with 270 fire and EMS workers on the scene by around 7:25 a.m., officials said.
One civilian, who police identified only as a man, was pronounced dead at the scene, the FDNY said.
Six firefighters were hospitalized with minor injuries, officials said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The deadly blaze erupted four days after a 62-year-old woman was killed in a Harlem apartment fire Sunday afternoon, officials said.
It also comes more than a week after four people — including one child — were killed when a four-alarm inferno ripped through a Flushing, Queens building on March 16.
Five others were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
“This is a difficult and tragic day,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said at that scene.
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