Father grieving baby who died in Bronx fire while twin children still hospitalized: "I'm just crying"

A family is grieving the loss of a 1-year-old boy killed after a fast-moving fire ripped through a Bronx apartment building on Monday.

Flames broke out on the second floor of the five-story building at 2609 Bainbridge Ave., between East 193rd and 194th streets, in the Fordham section at around 3:30 p.m.

Emergency responders transported Kwesi Harris' three children to the hospital. His son, Liam, was pronounced dead. His twin children, both 6 years old, are still in critical condition. 

"I'm just crying," Harris said. "I'm just holding on and being strong because I know my family is supporting me. What's going through my head is that I'm trying to analyze what really happened to my kids."

Mom had stepped out to get other child off bus, neighbor says

Police sources say the mother was not home when flames broke out. One neighbor who asked not to be identified said the mother had stepped outside to meet her 9-year-old daughter at the school bus.

"Not even five minutes she had [been] downstairs and we look up one second and there was nothing but black smoke coming out of her windows," the neighbor said.

The neighbor said people tried to run inside with the mother, but the flames were too strong.

"All the mother could do was cry, scream, watch her apartment from the doorway burning," the neighbor said.

What happened? 

The FDNY said the flames spread quickly from the second to the third and fourth floors as residents rushed to evacuate.

At one point, firefighters had to perform a roof rescue, pulling residents out of windows. Fire officials said 80 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the scene,

Two adults and two firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries. 

The Red Cross is helping at least 38 displaced residents. The cause remains under investigation.

Fire may have been exacerbated by open doors

Fire officials said they believe the flames were spread after tenants left doors open.

This building has three open violations from 2014 to "replace or repair" self-closing doors that are missing or defective, according to the city's Housing Preservation and Development.

"First and foremost, we want to acknowledge that this loss of life is devastating. We want to help prevent these tragedies from happening by reminding both property owners and tenants of the importance of closing doors to limit the spread of fire and smoke throughout buildings. Tenants should immediately alert the landlord if the self-closing mechanism on a door is not working, and should call 311 if the problem is not fixed in a timely manner," HPD said in a statement.

The FDNY has been urging residents in apartment buildings to be vigilant and close doors, as there have been multiple deadly fires over the past few weeks.

"We've had several of these fires lately where the occupants of the fire apartment have fled the building and left the apartment door open. That appears to be the case here again, because of the heavy amount of fire that we found in the hole we on arrival," said Malcolm Moore, FDNY assistant chief of special operations.

He, again, stressed the importance of shutting doors.

"It's tough to wrap your mind around having to do that. But the minute you close that door, you give everyone else in the building an opportunity to flee. And you give yourself more time to flee by not allowing the fire to chase behind you," Moore said.

So far this year the city has issued 21,000 violations regarding self-closing doors, compared to 23,000 violations issued by this time last year.