An apartment fire in New York has killed 12 people.
About 170 firefighters have been working through frigid -10 degree temperatures to rescue people from building.
The five storey building is a block from the grounds of the Bronx Zoo.
New York mayor Bill de Blasio says it's a devastating event.
"It's horrible to report that 12 are dead already. We may lose others as well. The fire has been put out completely by FDNY and I would like to thank all of our first responders."
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro called the fire, "historic in its magnitude," because of the number of lives lost.
"Our hearts go out to every person who lost a loved one here and everyone who is fighting for their lives," he said.
It is more deadly than one of the last serious fires to hit Bronz, when a blaze caused by a space heater killed 10 people in 2007.
It's reported the five-storey building has no lift, but exterior fire escapes are visible.
The fire began on the first floor just before 7pm and quickly ripped through much of the building, officials said.
Neighborhood resident Robert Gonzalez, who has a friend who lives in the building, said she got out on a fire escape as another resident fled with five children."When I got here, she was crying," Gonzalez said.
Windows on some upper floors were smashed and blackened."The smoke was crazy, people screaming, 'Get out!," a witness, Jamal Flicker, told the New York Post.
"I heard a woman yelling, 'We're trapped, help!"According to city records, the building had no elevator. Fire escapes were visible on the facade of the building.
- with content from AP
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