Families are picking up the pieces as the community grapples with unimaginable loss after Sunday’s massive Bronx fire that killed 17 people, including nine adults and eight children.
Fatima Wood says it was her 6-year-old daughter who first smelled the smoke. She says she opened the door and tried to go down the steps with her 3-year-old daughter but was trapped between the fourth and sixth floors.
Wood says a neighbor grabbed her 3-year-old daughter and was able to make it out of the building with her. However, she says she and the rest of her family hid inside of another neighbor’s apartment where they stayed for 20 minutes in fear before they were able to make it out themselves.
She says there was so much smoke in the building that she’s grateful to be alive.
“We're here, we just thank God for our life. Everything else can be replaced. But, at least at the end of the day, I have my family with me. There are people there that lost their families, brothers, sisters, parents. But, we're all here, we're all together."