At least 17 people, including 8 children, were killed in a fire at a high-rise building in New York City on Sunday. A preliminary investigation revealed that a malfunctioning electric space heater started the fire, which was one of the deadlier building blazes in the city’s history. The heavy smoke blocked some residents from escaping and incapacitated others as they tried to flee. Victims, many in cardiac and respiratory arrest, were found.

17 people, including nine children, died in a fire at an apartment in Bronx, New York, on Sunday.

Smoke rises from the burning twin towers of the World Trade Center after hijacked planes crashed into the towers, Sept. 11, 2001, in New York.
 The excursion boat General Slocum lies beached off Hell Gate in New York City’s East River, following a fire and resulting panic, June 15, 1904. The disaster cost the lives of 1,030 mostly German immigrants. 
In this March 25, 1911 file photo, firefighters work to put out the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, in New York’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. 
The charred facade of the Happy Land Social Club, in the Bronx borough of New York, is pictured March 25, 1990, where 87 perished in a fire.