Last Updated: February 25, 2024, 12:05 IST
New York, United States of America (USA)
Indian-national-Fazil Khan
Fazil Khan, a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School, served as a data journalist at The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit newsroom covering inequality and innovation in education. (Image: Fazil’s X handle)
Indian Mission in New York expresses condolences for the tragic death of a 27-year-old journalist in a Harlem fire. Full support offered to repatriate remains
A 27-year-old Indian national tragically died in a New York apartment fire on Friday. The Indian Mission in New York expressed condolences following Fazil Khan’s tragic death in Harlem. He was later recognised as a former CNN-News18 journalist.
“Saddened to learn about the death of 27-year-old Indian national Mr. Fazil Khan in an unfortunate fire incident in an apartment building in Harlem, NY, the Indian Mission in New York said in a post on X.
Who Was Fazil Khan?
He was a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School and served as a data journalist at The Hechinger Report, at Teachers College at Columbia University.
“As a data reporter at The Hechinger Report, I am responsible for gathering and analyzing education data and collaborating with other reporters to expose inequality and examine innovation in education. I am a 2021 graduate of the data journalism program at Columbia Journalism School where I was also chosen as a post-graduate fellow for the school’s Global Migration Project,” Fazil’s LinkedIn bio read.
His Career
A pass out of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Fazil began as a copyeditor at Business Standard. He also worked at CNN News18 in New Delhi before he moved to New York. “I am a 2021 graduate of the data journalism program at Columbia Journalism School where I was also chosen as a post-graduate fellow for the school’s Global Migration Project. My career began as a copyeditor at Business Standard, one of India’s leading business dailies, in 2018 and I was working as a correspondent at CNN-News18 in Delhi, India before I moved to New York in 2020 for my graduate degree at Columbia,” according to his LinkedIn.
The US outlet, where the Indian journalist worked, condoled his death in a post on X. “We learned Saturday that The Hechinger Report’s data reporter Fazil Khan died in a fire in the New York City building where he lived. We are devastated by the loss of such a great colleague and wonderful person, and our hearts go out to his family. He will be dearly missed,” The Hechinger Report said.
We learned Saturday that The Hechinger Report’s data reporter Fazil Khan died in a fire in the New York City building where he lived. We are devastated by the loss of such a great colleague and wonderful person, and our hearts go out to his family. He will be dearly missed.— The Hechinger Report (@hechingerreport) February 24, 2024
What Caused The Harlem Fire
The Friday fire, in which Fazil died, began just after 2 pm on the third floor of a six-story building in Harlem. New York Police Department video shows firefighters being lowered by ropes from the roof to rescue people trapped on the building’s upper floors.
“Our members attach themselves to a rope and then another member goes onto the rope and goes off the side of the building, goes down to the window and grabs the person,” FDNY Chief of Operations John Hodgens explained at a news conference Friday. “This happened three times at this fire.” The city has seen hundreds of fires linked to the lithium-ion batteries that power electric bikes and scooters in the last few years. The Fire Department has repeatedly issued warnings and safety tips.
Hodgens said an apartment door of the burning apartment was left open, intensifying the fire and hampering efforts to extinguish it. “If you could, imagine flames coming out that door and blocking off the stairwell,” he said. “Normally we go directly up to the floor above the fire, but we were even unable to get past those flames.”
(With agency inputs)
