Bronx On Fire: The Borough With A History Of Flames

THE BRONX — The Bronx continues to burn. The horrific blaze that stunned New York City last week — and claimed the lives of eight children and seven adults— was not the first time fire has devastated The Bronx.

Decades of photographs show a borough ransacked by flames, leaving New Yorkers to wonder, why does this continue to happen?

The answer is complex. So is the history.

1970s — The Bronx Burns

In the 1970s, people in The Bronx learned to sleep with their shoes on, documentarian and South Bronx native Vivian Vazquez Irizarry told Democracy Now. Irizarry documented the history of her borough during a time when The Bronx lost 80 percent of its housing stock in fires. She said some Bronx residents still remember the smell. "We were always told that it was our fault," Irizarry said. "That's how we grew up."

March 25, 1990 — The Happy Land Social Club Fire

The Happy Land social club fire was among the most deadly in the city's history, claiming 87 lives on March 25, 1990. According to a recent retrospective from the New York Times, an arsonist set the blaze — in a social club without fire exits and where revelers were celebrating Carnival — after a fight with his girlfriend.

April 25, 2011 — The Prospect Avenue Blaze

A 12-year-old boy and his parents died in the 2011 Prospect Avenue fire in part because of dangerous and illegal partitions built in the multi-family apartment building, CityLimits reported at the time. According to the report, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg vowed to crack down on dangerous housing conditions in the borough.

Sept. 27, 2016 — The House Explosion

Firefighter Michael Fahy lost his life and more than 20 others were injured when a marijuana grow house exploded, Patch reported at the time. Bronx prosecutors later reported leaking gas couldn't escape because the grow house's windows were covered with foil.

Dec. 7, 2016 — The Radiator Steam

Two toddler girls were killed when a faulty radiator filled the room where they napped with scalding steam, DNAinfo reported. The owner of the building, which had racked up dozens of violations, was "notorious slumlord" Moshe Piller, city records show.

Dec. 29, 2017 — The Fire Caused By Play

A dozen people died in a massive fire accidentally set by a 3-year-old boy playing with the burners on his mother's stove, Patch reported at the time. Said FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro of the Prospect Avenue building, "The stairway acted like a chimney and took the fire so quickly up stairs that people had very little time to react."

Jan. 2, 2018 — The Fire That Came Days Later

Just days after the Prospect Avenue fire, 23 people were injured when a blaze raced through a four-story building near the Bronx Zoo. The apartment complex was managed by the landlord of a building that caught fire in Brooklyn in 2016, where tenants waited in homeless shelters for more than a year for repairs to conclude.

January 9, 2022 — The Sunday Fire

Seventeen people — including a 2-year-old boy and two 5-year-old girls — lost their lives in last Sunday's tragic blaze. A malfunctioning electric space heater — plugged in to provide extra heat on a cold morning — was "certain" to have caused the deadly fire, Nigro said. Deadly smoke quickly filled the building in part because of a faulty self-closing door that was not a one-off problem.

The Associated Press contributed to this post.