NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The deadliest city blaze in decades killed eight homeless squatters who were burning debris in an abandoned warehouse to stay warm Tuesday, authorities said.
Firefighters said they could not tell the ages or
genders of those who died because their bodies were so badly burned. A
23-year-old man who escaped told the American Red Cross he could not get back
in to help his friends because of the smoke, agency volunteer Thomas Butler
said.
The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office said it was
uncertain when the dead would be identified. However, a group of young people
sitting on the steps of an abandoned house near the scene later Tuesday said
the dead included three women and five men.
Rachel Park, 27, of California, estimated the ages
ranged from 19 to 30.
She said the victims never thought of themselves as
homeless and rejected the "gutter punk" label used by some locals to
describe transient youths often seen begging for money or cigarettes on French
Quarter streets.
"They were all accomplished musicians or
artists — jolly, happy people," Park said, adding that four dogs died
along with the eight people.
Park knew the victims by first names only and said
one or two were from the New Orleans area, while the others were from elsewhere
in the U.S.
Temperatures were just below freezing early
Tuesday, not unheard of but unusually cold for New Orleans. The warehouse is in
a blighted city neighborhood left even more so by the flooding that followed
Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Agencies that work with the homeless said they
believe some or all the victims were in their late teens or early 20s. Linda
Gonzales, of the New Orleans Mission, said homeless young adults and teenagers
often avoid shelters for several reasons.
"Some of them choose to stay out and you can't
make them come in," she said.
The number of transient youths fluctuates, but
there could be several hundred homeless young people in the city at any given
time, said Mike Miller, an official with the homeless advocacy and aid group
UNITY of Greater New Orleans.
The blaze was reported just before 2 a.m., and fire
trucks arrived within five minutes to find the building engulfed in flames,
fire department spokesman Greg Davis said. Some of the victims may have been
rendered unconscious by carbon monoxide, a danger with indoor fires.
All that was left of the warehouse, which sat amid
graffiti-covered rail cars and ramshackle buildings, was the blackened
foundation and a partial shell of singed corrugated metal.
Nearby, inhabited wood-frame houses, some with
Christmas decorations, are interspersed with boarded-up homes with holes in the
roofs. The city has more than 55,000 such blighted properties, according to
current estimates.
A 22-year-old woman who was not in the warehouse
when the fire started told the Red Cross she was one of several squatters who
had been using the building for shelter.
Three young people who watched from across the
street as firefighters searched for victims with dogs said they knew those who
died but would not say more.
Later Tuesday, Audrey Bean, 19, of Philadelphia,
strummed a ukulele. "I was living in there with them for a few
weeks," she said.
Park and Bean were among a small group of young
people in worn clothing, their hands and faces dirty. They piled into a beat-up
van and drove away shortly before dusk near the burned remains of the building.
There they left what they called an altar: A collection of beer cans, candles,
a stuffed dog, and a sign with the words "hungry and homeless" in the
middle of it all.
Capt. Edwin Holmes said it was among the deadliest
fires in the modern history of the New Orleans Fire Department, and the worst
since 32 died in a fire at a French Quarter lounge in 1973.
Homelessness is a problem that has worsened since
Katrina. Gonzales estimated as many as 3,000 people with nowhere to go may be
on the streets on any given night. Shelters only have about 800 beds available,
she said, though the city works with them to provide more when temperatures
hover near or below freezing.
Still, said resident Ricky Gordon, many homeless
people show up in the neighborhood when it's cold rather than taking advantage
of available social services.
"I took one guy in last night myself," he
said.
Associated Press Writer Janet McConnaughey
contributed to this report.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Gerald Herbert)
