Faulty wires are to blame for the electrical fire which began around 11 a.m. on Sunday in a Hells Kitchen highrise building which left one dead and seven others injured, the Associated Press reported.
Daniel McClung and his partner Michael Todd Cohen were caught in the stairwell trying to escape from a fire which began 18 floors below their apartment on the 38th floor, the AP reported. The cause of the fire was faulty outlets in a 20th floor apartment.
Seven other residents and firefighters were also being treated for minor injuries, the AP reported.
McClung, a 27-year-old playwright died due to the smoke inhalation and Cohen, 32, is being treated at a New York Hospital and is in critical condition, according to BroadwayWorld.com. The couple had married in July and McClung was a Production Assistant at the Rattlestick Theatre and had already written three plays.
Fire Department operations Chief James Esposito said Monday the floor was completely smoked out by the time firefighters arrived on the scene and there was a "considerable heat condition on that floor," the AP reported.
Esposito also said "the fire received all the necessary oxygen it needed and it developed into a free-burning fire; it broke the windows on the exterior of the building," according to the AP.
The couple was found on the 31st floor inside the stairwell trying to make there way down and out of the building, the AP reported.
"If they had just stayed put, they would have been OK," Esposito said, according to the AP. "It's not the fire in these fireproof multiple dwellings that will kill you, it's the smoke that will kill you."
In modern high-rise buildings, residents should not use stairs or elevators to try and self evacuate because the building is equipped with a system to contain the fire inside whatever apartment or floor the flames are on, the AP repored.
Esposito instead instructed residents of high-rises to stay inside their apartments if the fire is happening below them, contact their lobby and emergency crews and wait to be rescued, the AP reported.
Instead, he advised residents of the buildings, which are designed to prevent the spread of fire between floors, to contact their lobby and wait for firefighters to rescue them.
"If you are on a floor above a fire, you stay put," Esposito said, adding that the apartment door failed to close in the 20th floor apartment where the fire started, failing to contain the fire inside, according to the AP.
