New mural sounds alarm on fire safety after Bronx high-rise fire
NEW YORK - A new mural in the Bronx is sounding the alarm for fire safety nine months after a high-rise fire killed 17 people in the borough.
Kidde, the company that makes fire safety equipment, commissioned artist Cey Adams to create the mural in Mount Eden.
It highlights the statistic that fatal residential fires affect Black communities almost twice as much as other races.
Actor Jesse Williams, a spokesperson for Kidde, was at the unveiling.
"I hope people just take the time to develop a simple routine in their house to check to make sure they're as safe as they can possibly be. We see smoke alarms. We see smoke detectors. So often we can take them for granted. You get annoyed it went off when you were cooking, you get annoyed the battery died and it beeps so you take the battery out and you leave it, and that can be a matter of life or death for the entire family, or that of an entire building that we've seen specifically here in the Bronx," Williams said.
Many of the victims in January's high rise fire were immigrants from West Africa.