A fire at a Buddhist temple in New York City has left two people dead, including a Buddhist monk.
New York City fire officials say the fire broke out around 6 a.m. Wednesday in the Bronx.
“We had fire throughout two buildings, and unfortunately, we did have two fatalities,” FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito said.
FDNY and police officials have not released the names of the victims as of Thursday morning. An NYPD spokesperson said families were still being notified.
The fire damaged the small temple, located inside a white, two-story townhouse, and a residence for monks in a home next door.
“It’s a disaster right now — the temple, but I was so shocked but I will try the best, all the Thai community will come to help, all around the world — whatever they can help,” temple treasurer Mayuree Sriphirom told TV station WABC.
She said that the victims included a monk who had existing health problems.
Fire officials said in a post on X that the blaze started accidentally, when a space heater was left on too close to “combustible materials.”
People were sleeping in the building at the time when a space heater and clothing near it caught fire, according to a temple worker quoted by the Daily News.
“The clothes that were close to the space heater caught fire and one of the monks was already downstairs praying. So he heard the man whose space heater was caught on fire come out, telling everyone that there was a fire. So the monk who was praying started waking up everybody,” said Pam Sudbanthad, the temple community support worker.
The fire quickly consumed the temple, and spread to two nearby residential buildings, the fire chief said. In video of the temple consumed by flames in the predawn blaze, fire officials can be heard ordering firefighters to back out, the building already too far gone to save.
Cars parked illegally in front of the fire hydrants slowed down their response, fire officials said.
“We did unfortunately have a car parked on the closest fire hydrant. We’ve seen that now a couple of times in the last week throughout the city. We all know that we should not be parking on fire hydrants and when you park on fire hydrants, it slows us down. When we’re fighting a fire, seconds count,” Esposito said.
At least one of the other fires hindered by illegally parked cars was also fatal.
