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NYC officials say weekend apartment fire is one of the worst in the city's history

Transcript²

A fire in a Bronx apartment building has left 19 people dead, including 9 children. The blaze, caused by a malfunctioning³ space heater, injured more than 60 people.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

A fire at a New York City apartment complex killed at least 19 people on Sunday - nearly half of them children. Officials there call it one of the worst fires in the city's history.

Here's New York City Fire Commissioner⁴ Daniel Nigro.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DANIEL NIGRO: This fire began in an apartment that spans two floors on the second and third floor of the building. It started in a malfunctioning electric space heater.

MARTIN: He said victims were found on every floor and in stairways. And it's the second such tragedy to strike in recent days. A fire last week in a crowded Philadelphia row house killed 12 people, including eight children. With us now Jake Offenhartz of member station WNYC.

Jake, so as I noted⁵, New York City officials say this was the deadliest fire in more than three decades, right? Why? What made it so bad?

JAKE OFFENHARTZ, BYLINE⁶: Yeah. I think a lot of people are still trying to figure that out. One thing officials pointed⁷ to was the fact that the door to the apartment that caught fire was open, and at least one of the doors in the - leading to a stairwell was also open. And that allowed these thick clouds of smoke to infiltrate⁸ basically every floor of the building's 19 stories. And I talked to people who said that they were OK if they stayed in their apartments and barricaded⁹ their doors. But many residents tried to evacuate¹⁰, and some of them died in the hallways that were filled with that smoke.

One resident I spoke¹¹ to, Ken¹ Otisi, described this wall of black smoke when he opened his apartment door.

KEN OTISI: It was pitch-black, thick, chalky smoke - the type of smoke that you can't breathe. There was one point I did kind of break down. I thought I was going to die. But I tried to stay as calm as possible.

OFFENHARTZ: Otisi said he waited in his apartment for hours. He was eventually able to leave. He helped carry his neighbor's child down the stairs. And he told me he saw multiple people and pets unconscious in the hallway.

MARTIN: What more do we know about the victims at this point?

OFFENHARTZ: We know that many of the victims and the building's residents were members of the West African Muslim community.

I spoke with a member of the Islamic Cultural Center of the Bronx, Bakary Camara. He described this close-knit community of immigrants that had developed around the borough's many mosques¹².

BAKARY CAMARA: We are devastated¹³. As a people of faith, we leave everything in the hands of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. However, you know, we need help. Some people live in this building for 40 years, and now they are uprooted¹⁴.

OFFENHARTZ: A lot of the survivors¹⁵ I spoke to are still in shock. There was a group of women who immigrated¹⁶ from Guinea. One had glass in her hand from punching out a window to get air flowing through her apartment.

Another woman, Fanta Kpoghomou, told me that her cousin and her cousin's daughter were still missing as of last night.

FANTA KPOGHOMOU: Honestly, I'm just sad. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm just sad. After that, I don't know what to say no more.

OFFENHARTZ: The Red Cross is providing emergency shelter in hotels for those who need it. The city says it will find long-term housing if residents can't return to their apartments. And Governor Hochul has promised to set up a victims compensation fund. But this was an affordable¹⁷ housing complex with moderate- and low-income tenants¹⁸. And it's going to take a lot of community support.

MARTIN: Was there anything substantively¹⁹ wrong with this building? I mean, it was built in '72, right?

OFFENHARTZ: Yeah. So fire officials say that the building was fireproof. But many high-rises - there was no fire escapes. And residents say there weren't sprinklers in the building because, at the time, there weren't local laws requiring sprinklers in residential²⁰ buildings.

MARTIN: I'm sure there will be an investigation²¹. Jake Offenhartz of member station WNYC, thank you.

OFFENHARTZ: Thank you.

1 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 malfunctioning   

出故障

参考例句：

• But something was malfunctioning in the equipment due to human error. 但由于人为的错误，设备发生故障了。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• Choke coils are useful for prevention of malfunctioning electronic equipment. 扼流圈对于防止电器设备的故障很有帮助。 来自互联网

4 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

8 infiltrate   

vt./vi.渗入，透过；浸润

参考例句：

• The teacher tried to infiltrate her ideas into the children's minds.老师设法把她的思想渗透到孩子们的心中。
• It can infiltrate as much as 100 kilometers into enemy territory at night.可以在夜间深入敌领土100千米。

9 barricaded   

设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守

参考例句：

• The police barricaded the entrance. 警方在入口处设置了路障。
• The doors had been barricaded. 门都被堵住了。

10 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

13 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

14 uprooted   

v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• Many people were uprooted from their homes by the flood. 水灾令许多人背井离乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hurricane blew with such force that trees were uprooted. 飓风强烈地刮着，树都被连根拔起了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

16 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

17 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

18 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。

19 substantively   

adv.真实地；实质上

参考例句：

• WTO-consistency had to be secured substantively as well. 与WTO的一致性还必须获得实质性的保证。 来自互联网
• What is called quantum information science is substantively to research information science encoding with quantum states. 量子信息学是近几年迅速发展起来的一门新兴交叉学科，它是量子力学和信息科学相结合的产物。 来自互联网

20 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

21 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。