Page 23 - Space Heaters News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

A few key facts here this afternoon. but first of all, just a reminder that what investigators have been saying since yesterday is that what caused this fire on the second and third floors, a two-story unit there, was a malfunctioning electric space heater. now, what they said today is unfortunately we're more at risk of these kinds of accidents, particularly in the wintertime, when residents are trying to stay warm, if the heating systems in their units are not doing enough, they try to supplement that with these electric space heaters. but what we did learn is that there was actually a malfu...

Buildings have proper heat, residents would not feel the need to use space heaters in if first place. we have to look at all of this with a very tailored approach. we announced earlier today with congress member torres we will form a task force on fire education and safety and look at building codes, sprinkler system, fire alarms, fire escapes. we're going to look at everything to swee what we can o at a federal and state level. >> so important. our deepest condolences to the families. please pass along our love to all of them. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much. thank you ...

Accidents, you know, residents are more at risk of them during these colder months. they're trying to supplement the heating they're able to get in their units with these space heaters. like you said, investigators determining early on from physical evidence and from speaking to residents that an electric space heater in the second and third floor unit in a bedroom is what caused this. you also mentioned that open door, which the mayor and the commissioner said made a really big difference here. that's what allowed the fire to engulf and go up the entire building. we spoke to some residents wh...

Are pointing to, a malfunctioning space heater, those self-closing doors that didn't work. are there officials making sure other public housing buildings are safe right now? what should they be doing and what are you doing? >> it's true the space heaters are a fire hazard and people need to be extraordinarily careful with space heaters, the second most common category of fires is heating fires that tend to involve the use of space heaters. we have to ask a deeper question, why are tenants using space heaters in the first place? there are situations where landlords are denying sufficient heat a...

Facility space for all of these residents? i assume, polo, and forgive me if this has already been said many, many times, i assume that building has been completely evacuated now. there is nobody left in that building, or are there folks still left in there? >> reporter: fire officials told me earlier, jim, they were in the process of making sure engineers could make sure it was structurally sound to allow folks to potentially head back inside if they, in fact, can be inside. as for the rest of the folks, authorities are telling us they're trying to make sure they ever a hotel to go to, at lea...