Philadelphia to release preliminary findings of probe into apartment fire that killed 12

Philadelphia will on Tuesday release preliminary findings of an investigation into an apartment fire last week in Fairmount that killed 12 people, including eight children, Mayor Jim Kenney's office said. Kenney will hold a news conference at 2:15 p.m. EST at City Hall with Philadelphia's fire commissioner, housing authority president and an official with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Philadelphia will on Tuesday release preliminary findings of an investigation into an apartment fire last week in Fairmount that killed 12 people, including eight children, Mayor Jim Kenney's office said.

Kenney will hold a news conference at 2:15 p.m. EST at City Hall with Philadelphia's fire commissioner, housing authority president and an official with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The blaze broke out around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday on the second floor of a three-story row house in the city's Fairmont neighborhood. The building is owned by the federally funded Philadelphia Housing Authority, the fourth-largest housing authority in the United States.

The catastrophe along with a fire in The Bronx borough of New York City on Sunday that claimed the lives of 17 people, including eight children, has stirred questions on safety standards in low-income city housing in the United States. Philadelphia fire officials said the building was overcrowded, with 26 inside a structure meant to accommodate two families.

Conflicting accounts emerged about the building's smoke detectors. Fire department officials said four smoke detectors were installed in the building and had last been inspected in 2020. Dinesh Indala, executive vice president at the Philadelphia Housing Authority, told reporters there were six devices last inspected in May 2021.

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