At least 13 people, including children, dead in Philadelphia house fire

At least 13 people died and two were injured in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wednesday morning after fire broke out in a three-story apartment building, local authorities said.

The Philadelphia Fire Department said on Twitter that its firefighters arrived at the building located on the 800 block of North 23rd Street at 6:40 a.m. local time and found heavy fire coming from the second floor of the building. It took 50 minutes to put the fire under control, but the scene is still active, it said.

Philadelphia Fire Deputy Commissioner Craig Murphy told a news conference that seven of the 13 people killed were children. Firefighters said two people were injured and in critical condition.

Murphy said the fire "is probably one of the worst fires I've ever been to," adding that there were four fire detectors in the building but none of them worked.

Investigators are still trying to find out the origin and cause of the fire. Murphy refused to elaborate on the details of the ongoing probe. (ANI/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor