Bronx fire tragedy; Smoke detector awareness

(New York-WABC, March 8, 2007) (WABC) -- We cover the news. It's our job. Like any job, it has its routines. What is never routine is covering death. And tonight we're covering death aplenty.

A fire in the Bronx overnight -- killed nine people, including eight children. It was the deadliest fire New York City in about 2 decades. There were 22 people -- all related -- living inside the single-family, four-story house, most of them kids, all of them from the West African country of Mali. Some of them were thrown out the window by their terrified mothers; some of the kids were caught by people down below.

The fire started in the ground-floor basement -- most likely from either a space heater or an overloaded power strip. Rather than call 9-1-1, the people inside called other family members -- who were apparently driving cabs. That delayed the fire department response by several minutes.

The home did have smoke detectors -- at least two. And they were in working order except for one missing component in each: a battery. Useless.

A working smoke detector more than doubles the chances of surviving a fire; these people had no chance.

Tonight at 11, we'll have the latest on the fire, on the investigation, on the condition of the 19 people who are injured (including three kids listed as very critical), and reaction from the community. We have several reporters covering the fire and its aftermath, tonight at 11.

We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast (record cold tonight -- but warmer temps are coming), and Scott Clark with the night's sports. I hope you can join us, tonight at 11.

BILL RITTER

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