Three young boys were killed in a fire that roared through a six-floor Bronx apartment building on Friday.
The fire started in the second story of the apartment building just before 8 p.m. ET on Friday and soon spread through the building. The New York Times reports that about a dozen fire trucks responded to the scene and more than 100 firefighters worked until 10:30 p.m. to get the fire under control.
Firefighters rescued three young boys from the apartment in which the fire was the most severe and they were taken to Lincoln Medical Center. Doctors were unable to save any of the boys and they were later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The three victims were later identified as 5-year-old Elijah Artis, 2-year-old Jeremiah Artis, and 4-month-old Michael Turner, according to the New York Daily News.
A 25-year-old woman and two girls, aged four years and four months, were treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation. The Daily News reports that witnesses saw the woman leap from the second story with a girl in her arms.
"She was yelling out the window. She saw me, she yelled, 'Fire!'" Cynthia Woods, the victims’ friend, told NY1. "So I ran upstairs to the apartment and I kicked the door open and I tried to go in and get the kids 'cause I hear the kids hollering, but the fire was real heavy, so I fell and I couldn't get into the house to save the kids.”
“I couldn't get them,” Woods added. “I just couldn't get the kids out. I hear them crying, and they was burning, and I couldn't get them. I couldn't get them out. I tried."
The youngest victim, Michael, had a twin sister, according to the Daily Mail, who was the 4-month-old treated for smoke inhalation.
Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the blaze.