[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] The smoke awakened the neighbors first — not the sight of thick, gray-black clouds that swelled outside apartment 5G, but the smell. Then there were the sounds in the quiet of the night: a noise like an explosion, the crackling of glass as windows flew out and the voices of children, screaming. A fire that officials said apparently began on the kitchen stove was racing through the three-bedroom apartment in Harlem. Six people were trapped inside. None of them would survive. “You could hear when they would say, ‘Mom,’” said Jennifer Nunn-Stanley, who lives across the street and heard the shouts coming from inside the burning building. The Fire Department sent 100 firefighters to the site of the blaze, at 2441 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard at 142nd Street, a 109-year-old building run by the New York City Housing Authority. But the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, said that when firefighters reached the apartment on the fifth floor, “The fire met them at the front door.”<doc-sep>A fatal fire in Harlem killed a family of six, including four children, authorities said. (CNN) — Inspectors with the New York City Housing Authority had previously tested a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector at the Harlem apartment where a family of six died in a blaze Wednesday. The successful test was carried out in January, the housing authority’s interim chair and CEO Kathryn Garcia said. But investigators from the city fire department said that no smoke alarm has been recovered from the scene. The fire, which began at a kitchen stove, was accidental and caused by unattended cooking, fire marshals said. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called the blaze, which broke out early Wednesday at the fifth-floor apartment and left two adults and four children dead, a “horrible, terrible accident.” Police responded to a 911 call at about 1:40 a.m. at the Frederick Samuel Houses in Harlem on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. After firefighters put out the blaze, responding officers found six people unconscious and unresponsive in the rear bedrooms, police said. Emergency responders pronounced six people dead at the scene, including a 45-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man. Two girls ages 11 and 6 and two boys ages 8 and 3 were also dead. ’Gut-wrenching moment’ Mayor de Blasio lamented the death of the entire family midday Wednesday and said they would investigate the incident further. “This is a gut-wrenching moment for all of us,” de Blasio said. WPIX The fire broke out in a fifth floor apartment. Three others suffered minor smoke inhalation and were taken to area hospitals, said Brian Fitzgerald, spokesperson for FDNY. Not all of the tenants were displaced, and the Red Cross was called to the scene. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said that when firefighters arrived the fire stretched out the windows on two sides of the building. The bodies were found in two bedrooms in the six-room apartment. The fire began in the kitchen and eventually spread to every room in the apartment, Nigro said. The kitchen is the closest room to the front door, and the fire escapes were on the opposite end of the apartment from the rear bedroom, so the family was not able to get to an escape, Nigro said. FDNY released video on Wednesday afternoon showing the charred and destroyed remains of the apartment. Video footage from the fire apartment at 2441 7th Avenue in Harlem, where two adults and four children were killed early this morning. pic.twitter.com/TBAR5i5ri4 — FDNY (@FDNY) May 8, 2019 ’They were always happy’ Eric Allen, a neighbor who has lived in the building for more than 10 years, said he and his wife smelled smoke early Wednesday. When he went out to see what was going on, he saw the floors above him on the opposite section were on fire, so he got his wife and children and evacuated the building. “It could easily have been us in that apartment,” he said. Almost all of the apartment building tenants were standing out front, including some who were half-dressed. After about half an hour, he could see that firefighters were putting the fire out, he said. Allen said he remembered seeing the family of six around the building and that their kids interacted with his kids. “When I (saw) them, they were always happy,” he said about the kids, “and definitely polite. They were always polite.” He said the family had lived in the building for at least five years. “You would see the family come and go, and you’re not gonna see them anymore,” he said. “It’s such a horrific event, you can’t imagine anything like that.” CNN’s Joe Sutton and Hollie Silverman contributed to this report.<doc-sep>
The deaths were all part of one family. Six members of the same family, including four children, were killed in an overnight fire in New York City's historic Harlem neighborhood. It is the deadliest fire in the city since 13 people were killed in a Bronx fire in late 2017. The fire broke out on the fifth floor of the building in Harlem at the intersection of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and 142nd Street at about 1:45 a.m. on Wednesday. Officials said that all six people -- two adults, two boys and two girls -- were from the same family. All were pronounced dead on the scene. The children range in age from 3 to 11, the fire department said. One of the adults is the children's mother, while the second adult is her stepbrother. The fire did not appear to be suspicious, but an investigation is underway, fire officials said. Early indications are that the burn on the stove may have been left on overnight, a source told ABC News. A source familiar with the investigation told ABC News that the mother likely fell asleep while cooking, and the smoke detectors had been disconnected since a January inspection. "Units were met at the door of that apartment with fire. The entire apartment was involved," Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. "They aggressively moved in, extinguishing the fire as they did. When they reached the two rear bedrooms we found six occupants of that apartment deceased." It took about an hour to get the fire under control, Nigro said. "As aggressive as those members could be, they were not able to reach those occupants," Nigro said of his firefighters. The building is part of the Frederick E. Samuel Houses, a city-owned housing complex. ABC News' Will Gretsky contributed to this report.