7 children among 13 killed as fire races through Philadelphia row house, officials say

At least 13 people were killed, including seven kids, and others were injured as a heavy fire engulfed a Pennsylvania row house, officials said.

The Philadelphia Fire Department said it responded to the fatal fire at 6:40 a.m. Jan. 5 “and found heavy fire coming from the second floor of a three-story row house.”

It took 50 minutes to control the house fire in the 800 block of North 23rd Street, according to tweets from the fire department

At a live news conference, Philadelphia Deputy Fire Commissioner Craig Murphy said this is one of the worst house fires he has been to in 35 years, highlighting a “tremendous loss of life.”

He added the 13 deaths is “dynamic,” as a recovery effort inside the home continues.

The home is owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA), he said, and the row house had been converted to house two apartments. He said the home had six working, battery-operated smoke detectors as of the last PHA inspection in 2020, but none were operating at the time of the fire.

About eight people lived in one of the duplex units, Murphy said, and about 18 lived in the second unit.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 10:47 AM with the headline "7 children among 13 killed as fire races through Philadelphia row house, officials say."