An Apartment Fire in New York Kills a Former CNN-News18 Journalist: The Story of Indian National Fazil Khan

Tragically, a 27-year-old Indian national perished on Friday in an apartment fire in New York. The Indian Mission in New York sent their condolences in the wake of the untimely death of Fazil Khan in Harlem. Later on, he was identified as a former journalist with CNN-News18.

The Indian Mission in New York posted on X that it was “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.”

FAZIL KHAN: WHO WAS SHE?
After completing his studies at Columbia Journalism School, he worked as a data journalist at Teachers College at Columbia University’s The Hechinger Report.

“As a data reporter at The Hechinger Report, my duties include collecting and evaluating educational data, working with other reporters to uncover disparities, and investigating innovation in the field of education. According to Fazil’s LinkedIn page, “I graduated from Columbia Journalism School’s data journalism program in 2021. I was also selected as a post-graduate fellow for the school’s Global Migration Project.”

HIS PROFESSION
After graduating from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Fazil started working at Business Standard as a copyeditor. Before relocating to New York, he was employed at CNN News18 in New Delhi as well. “I graduated from Columbia Journalism School’s data journalism program in 2021, and I was selected as a post-graduate fellow for the Global Migration Project at the university. According to his LinkedIn profile, “I started my career as a copyeditor at Business Standard, one of the top business daily in India, in 2018. Before moving to New York in 2020 to pursue my graduate degree at Columbia, I was employed as a reporter at CNN-News18 in Delhi, India.

The Indian journalist’s employer, a US publication, expressed sorrow at his passing in a post on X. “On Saturday, we discovered that Fazil Khan, the data reporter for The Hechinger Report, perished in a fire in his apartment building in New York City. Our thoughts go out to his family and we are crushed by the loss of such a beautiful guy and terrific colleague. The Hechinger Report wrote, “He will be sorely missed.”

THE HARLEM FIRE’S CAUSE
Fazil lost his life in the Friday fire, which started on the third level of a six-story Harlem structure just after 2:00 pm. On footage from the New York Police Department, firemen are seen being dropped from the top to rescue those who are stuck on the higher stories of the building using ropes.

At a press conference on Friday, FDNY Chief of Operations John Hodgens said, “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.” “This occurred at this fire three times.” In the last several years, the city has seen hundreds of fires connected to the lithium-ion batteries that power electric scooters and motorcycles. The Fire Department has issued safety advice and warnings on many occasions.

According to Hodgens, one of the blazing apartment’s doors was left open, escalating the fire and making it more difficult to put it out. He continued, “If you could, picture flames shooting out of that door and closing off the stairwell.” “Normally, we climb up to the floor directly above the fire, but we couldn’t even get past those flames.”