NY apartment fire is deadliest in 27 years

NEW YORK - Investigators searched early on Friday for the cause of a blaze that ripped through an apartment building in the borough of the Bronx, killing at least 12 people including an infant, in the city's deadliest fire in over a quarter of a century.

The fire broke out before 7 pm on Thursday on the first floor of a brick building and quickly spread upstairs, city Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a news conference with Mayor Bill de Blasio.

"We're here at the scene of an unspeakable tragedy. In the middle of the holiday season is a time when families are together. Tonight, here in the Bronx, there are families that have been torn apart," De Blasio said.