A fire at a Buddhist temple in New York City has left two people dead, including a Buddhist monk.

As per the details, New York City fire officials said that the fire broke out around 6 am on Wednesday in the Bronx, Associated Press reported.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the official New York City Fire Department posted, "At 6:00 this morning the Fire Department was alerted to a report of a fire at 2086 Anthony Avenue. We arrived to find heavy fire in two buildings and very quickly transmitted a 2nd alarm. It eventually became a 3rd alarm, bringing more than 40 fire and EMS units and 150 fire and EMS personnel to the scene. We had fire throughout two buildings, and unfortunately, we did have two fatalities,” said Chief of Department John Esposito. “We did unfortunately have a car parked on the closest fire hydrant. We’ve seen that now a couple of times in the last week throughout the City. We all know that we should not be parking on fire hydrants and when you park on fire hydrants, it slows us down. When we’re fighting a fire, seconds count."

The blaze damaged the small temple, located inside a white, two-story townhouse, and a residence for monks in a home next door.

Temple treasurer Mayuree Sriphirom told TV station WABC, “It’s a disaster right now — the temple, but I was so shocked but I will try the best, all the Thai community will come to help, all around the world -- whatever they can help." She said that the victims included a monk who had existing health problems.

In a post, the Fire officials said that the blaze started accidentally, when a space heater was left on too close to combustible materials.

Pam Sudbanthad, the temple community support worker said, “The clothes that were close to the space heater caught fire and one of the monks was already downstairs praying. So he heard the man whose space heater was caught on fire come out, telling everyone that there was a fire. So the monk who was praying started waking up everybody."

Fire officials said that cars parked illegally in front of the fire hydrants slowed down their response.