Early Wednesday morning, flames blazed through a Philadelphia rowhouse, killing at least 13 people, including seven children, and critically injuring two more, authorities said.
Approximately 6:40 a.m. EST, firefighters arrived at the three-story structure in the 800 block of North 23rd Street in the city’s Fairmount district, according to authorities.
According to the Philadelphia Fire Department, it took approximately 50 minutes to bring the blaze under control.
Officials said the building had four smoke alarms, none of which worked.
In the densely populated residential neighborhood, it looked that most of the damage had been restricted to a single structure.
Real estate records say that the rowhouse was split into five units and owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which helps low-income families.
The first story housed eight people, while the second and third floors housed a total of eighteen people.
“That’s a tremendous amount of people to be living in a duplex,” a fire official told reporters.
The urban block is less than a 15-minute walk from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is home to the infamous “Rocky” steps, and little more than a mile south of Temple University.
This is a developing story, please refresh here for updates.
Image Credit: Getty
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