The fire broke out yesterday afternoon shortly after 2 PM (local time) in the Queens Village neighborhood of Queens. The two-story single family home was engulfed by the four-alarm blaze.
Television news footage showed flames chewing through the roof and roaring in upstairs rooms of the house as smoke poured from it.
Officials said five people have died.
Witnesses heard loud booms before the blaze broke out. A neighbor told the New York Post that she saw a baby who was very badly burned being carried from the home.