13 people died and several more injured after a fire broke out in a flat building in the US city of Philadelphia. Seven children were among the victims.
The blaze began at around 06:00 local time (11:00 GMT) in a public housing block in the north of the city.
Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy told reporters it was one of the worst fires in the city.
“We plan on making sure that this tremendous loss of life did not happen in vain,” he said.
He added that eight other residents had managed to escape the building.
Approximately 26 people in the three-storey block at the time of the fire.
The building is owned by the government funded Philadelphia Housing Authority, and it has been legally divided into two flats since the 1950s.
Officials said that at the last inspection of the building in 2020 there had been four working smoke detectors, but none of them went off during the fire.
Murphy told reporters that while authorities do not currently consider the cause of the fire to be suspicious, there will still be a thorough investigation due to the loss of life.
Speaking during the press conference, the city’s Mayor Jim Kenney said: “This is without a doubt one of the most tragic days in our city’s history, the loss of so many people in such a tragic way.”
“Losing so many kids is just devastating,” he added.
