Philadelphia Mayor Kenney has another major problem on his hand.
Earlier this morning, 13 people lost their lives in a tragic house fire, including seven children.
The home was owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and the smoke detectors were not working.
Tragedy Strikes
According to Philadelphia Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy, the home had four smoke detectors inside of it.
However, none of them were working.
Mayor Kenney stated, “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.
“Please keep all these folks and especially these children in your prayers.
“Losing so many kids is just devastating.”
Firefighters arrived at the building around 6:40 a.m.
When they arrived, large flames were already pouring out of the second floor of the building.
There were eight people that lived on the bottom floor, all of whom escaped.
However, there were an additional 18 people living in the homes on the upper floor.
Due to the sheer number of people in the home, there are already questions being asked if this was housing illegal immigrants, with Philadelphia being one of the many sanctuary cities in this country.
Murphy, on this question, stated, “Obviously the tragedy happened and we all mourn for it but we can’t make judgment on the number of people in the house because sometimes people need to be indoors.”
As noted above, there are still bodies unaccounted for.
Murphy stated, “That number is dynamic because there is still an ongoing recovery effort inside via the fire marshal and the ATF.”
It took firefighters almost an hour to get the blaze under control.
On the strength of the fire, Murphy stated, “I’ve been around for 35 years now and this is probably one of the worst fires I’ve ever been to.
“We are working with the fire marshal’s office, we plan on and intend on getting a cause for this fire.
“We plan on making sure that this tremendous loss of life did not happen in vain.”
We will continue to monitor the story for updates on the death toll and update as needed.
Source: Fox News
