NEW ORLEANS — The city’s deadliest 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 that he could not get 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 didn’t think of themselves as homeless and rejected the “gutter punk” label used by locals to describe transient youths.
“They were all accomplished musicians or artists — jolly, happy people,” Park said.
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, not unheard of but unusually cold for New Orleans. The warehouse is in a blighted 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 blaze was reported just before 2 a.m., and fire trucks arrived within five minutes to find the building completely 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.
