New Yorkers embarked on desperate searches Sunday for family members injured or killed in the deadly Bronx apartment building fire.
At least 19 people, including nine children, died in the fire that officials believe stemmed from a malfunctioning space heater in a duplex on the building’s second and third floors.
Aisha Dukuray, 28, searched for her 20 relatives who live in the building Sunday at nearby Jacobi Hospital.
“A whole bunch of my family live in the same building. They are all over the place. We are trying to identify them,” she said.
Many New Yorkers are now urgently working to identify and contact family members who may have been in the burning building. G.N.Miller/NYPost
Firefighters rushing an injured person out of the building. G.N.Miller/NYPostDukuray’s family are all immigrants from Gambia, like many of the building’s residents. She believes they are scattered across area hospitals but doesn’t know who is where. She is hitting one hospital at a time trying to identify her kin.
Montefiore Hospital is her next stop.
“I’ve only seen just bodies for now, and none of them I can identify. The one I saw here was a 15- or 16-year-old boy who I thought might be my nephew. I saw his face in a body bag. He looked familiar, but it wasn’t him.
“Everybody’s calling me,” said Dukuray, who doesn’t live in the building. “I’m a nurse myself, and I went home to change and help look.”
Frantz Sannon’s frantic search on Sunday night had a happy ending as the 45-year-old found his parents alive and well at P.S. 391 – a school being used as a temporary shelter for victims.
“I was in shock. I just saw them there and I’m speechless right now. I grabbed them. My eyes couldn’t believe it,” Sannon told The Post.
“I’m just overwhelmed right now. I was thinking of the worst,” he said.
Sannon first tried to find his parents at St. Barnabas Hospital before heading to the school.
“I thought they would be in an ER right now getting a ventilator, but I’m so happy,” he said.
Sannon estimated there were “hundreds” of survivors sheltering at the school.
Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul speaking at a press conference on the Bronx fire. Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty ImagesInjured children have been brought to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital and Harlem Hospital, according to sources.
A victim identification system has been implemented so family members can call 311 to report missing relatives and friends and help identify bodies.
Mayor Eric Adams urged people in a Sunday afternoon presser to come forward if they need help, regardless of their immigration station.
The deceased are also reportedly being brought to both the Manhattan and Queens morgues.
