'Victims on every floor': Nine kids among 19 dead in New York fire

Nine children were among at least 19 people killed and dozens injured when a fire tore through a high-rise apartment building in New York on Sunday in one of America's worst residential fires in recent memory.

Witnesses reported seeing trapped residents screaming for help from windows during the deadly inferno that the city's fire chief said had been caused by a portable electric heater, leaving victims on "every floor."

Mayor Eric Adams told reporters that 19 people had been confirmed dead and 63 had been wounded, including several that were in a "critical condition."

"This is going to be one of the worst fires in our history," he said.

"Join me in praying for those we lost, especially the 9 innocent young lives that were cut short," he added in a later tweet.

At least 200 firefighters responded to the blaze, which broke out just before 11:00 am on the second and third floors of a 19-story building in The Bronx.

The mainly working class borough is home to a large number of immigrants and Adams said "many" of the building's residents had been Muslims who moved to New York from Gambia.

Photographs and video posted on social media showed flames and thick black smoke billowing out of a third-story window of the brick building at East 181st Street as firefighters operated on a nearby ladder.

"It was chaos," George King, who lives directly adjacent to the building, said.

"I've been here 15 years and it's the first time I've seen something like this.

"I saw the smoke, a lot of people were panicking. You could see that no one wanted to jump from the building. People were waving from the windows," he added.

The injured were taken to five hospitals; many suffered from cardiac and respiratory arrest and severe smoke inhalation, officials said.