The deadly Bronx, N.Y., fire that killed 12 people on Dec. 28 has claimed another victim, a week after the blaze occurred.
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According to the Associated Press, police confirmed that 27-year-old Holt Francis, who was severely injured in the blaze that was said to be have been caused by a toddler playing with stove burners, died at a hospital Thursday.
Francis’ wife, the couple’s two daughters and a niece were also killed in the fire.
That means that the fire, said to be one of the deadliest in New York City in decades, has resulted in the deaths of eight adults and five children. Among the dead was 28-year-old Pfc. Emmanuel Mensah, a New York Army National Guard soldier, who died while rescuing people from the fire.
As the New York Daily News notes, Mensah went in and out of the blazing building at least three times, saving at least four other residents.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is now pushing the Army to posthumously honor Mensah for his bravery and sacrifice.
“Pfc. Emmanuel Mensah was many things: a soldier, an immigrant, a first-generation American, a New Yorker—but above all else he was a hero,” Schumer wrote in a letter to the Army about Mensah, whose family emigrated from Ghana.
“It is my sincere hope that the Department of the Army will honor and recognize one of their own who lived and died according to the highest ideals of their institution and of this country,” Schumer added.
Read more at ABC News and the New York Daily News.
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