a fire in a philadelphia row house wednesday morning left at least 12 people dead eight of whom were children officials said city officials revised the death toll wednesday evening after the philadelphia fire department initially reported during the recovery process that 13 people including seven children had died two others including one child were critically injured and have been transported to hospitals at least eight people were able to selfevacuate firefighters were able to rescue one child from the building but the child did not survive officials said it was terrible deputy fire commissioner craig murphy said during a news conference ive been around for 35 years now and this was probably one of the worst fires ive ever been to the philadelphia fire departments fire marshals office is leading the investigation into the cause of the fire visibly distraught fire official on philadelphia row house fire that claimed at least 13 lives including children ive been around 35 years nowand this is probably one of the worst fires ive ever been to pictwittercomjzd7pd2cst abc news abc january 5 2022 this is without a doubt one of the most tragic days in our citys history mayor jim kenney said during the press conference losing so many kids is just devastating the fire started in the second story of a threestory row house around a kitchen according to the department roughly 26 people lived in the building which was divided into two duplex units eight people lived in a unit between the first and second floor and 18 people lived in a unit between the second and third floor which murphy said was a tremendous amount of people to be living in a duplex philadelphia mayor jim kenney pauses while speaking at a news conference near the scene of a deadly row house fire jan 5 2022 in the fairmount neighborhood of philadelphia matt rourkeap firefighters at work at the scene of a fire at a home in the fairmount section of philadelphia jan 5 2022 wpvi fire officials arrived on the scene of the fire just before 640 am and said the fire was under control 50 minutes later the building was operated by the philadelphia housing authority the citys housing authority said the building had six working smoke detectors as recently as last may speaking to reporters executive vice president for housing operations at the philadelphia housing authority dinesh indala said housing authority inspectors visited the building on may 5 of last year contradicting what fire officials said earlier wednesday fire officials said there were four batteryoperated smoke detectors in the building none of which were working according to fire officials an inspection was made in 2019 to install four smoke detectors and the latest inspection was made in 2020 when two more smoke detectors were installed i dont know if they were replaced or tampered with we have no idea indala said indala said the pha was not aware that 26 people were living there