Severe heat injures 12 firefighters in NYC fire

Xinhua General News Service

NEW YORK — At least 12 firefighters were injured Wednesday in a blaze in New York due to severe heat.

The fire began around 10:20 a.m. local time and lasted more than two hours on the top floor of an apartment building in Rego Park, Queens, according to a New York City Fire Department official.

About 200 firefighters helped put out the blaze, and 12 received minor injuries that were mostly heat-related, according to local media. Two firefighters with heat exhaustion and one with burns to the neck were sent to local hospitals.

The American Red Cross let more than 100 displaced residents into a nearby relief center for air conditioning and other supplies.

The reason of the blaze is still under investigation, while residents blamed the high temperature for the fire.

The temperature soared to a record 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) Tuesday in the New York City as unusual heat wave hit the Northeast area since Sunday, and will remain at 90 or above until the weekend.

As the mercury soars, more than 5,000 outages have been reported and electricity provider Con Edison said that more than 400,000 customers have been affected by the surge reduction.

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