A small child fell from an apartment building window in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx on Sunday evening, landing on the sidewalk near Buchanan Place and Grant Avenue before police officers and paramedics rushed to his aid. The child, described as five years old or younger, was taken to New York-Presbyterian following the roughly 5:30 p.m. incident. Police told responding officers the boy is expected to recover.
According to News 12 New York, which was first on the scene, two police officers tended to the boy on the sidewalk before paramedics arrived, and video from the scene shows the officers at his side. EMS then rushed the child to New York-Presbyterian. It was not immediately clear how far the child fell before hitting the ground, and News 12 reporter Zoe Cosgrove noted the story was still developing as of Sunday night.
A Pattern of Bronx Window Falls This Year
Sunday's fall is the third reported incident this year involving a young child tumbling from a Bronx apartment window. Less than a month earlier, on July 17, a 1-year-old boy survived a fall from a fifth-floor window on Oak Terrace in Mott Haven and was transported conscious to Harlem Hospital, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the Mott Haven fall. Before that, on April 6, a 5-year-old boy fell from a third-floor window on East 167th Street in Morrisania and was also taken to Harlem Hospital conscious, according to ABC7 New York.
It remains unknown whether the Fordham Heights apartment had a functioning window guard installed, whether a guard had been removed to fit a window air conditioner during the summer heat, or whether the building's owner had sent and documented the annual window guard notice required of landlords. Those questions are unresolved as of this reporting.
What NYC Law Requires of Landlords
Under NYC Health Code § 131.15 and Local Law 57, owners of multi-family buildings with three or more units are legally required to install and maintain approved window guards in any apartment where a child aged 10 or younger lives, per guidance cited by OneView NYC Inspections. The devices must restrict window openings to no more than 4.5 inches. The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development treats missing or defective window guards as Class C “immediately hazardous” violations, with civil penalties ranging from $150 to $1,200 plus daily fines of up to $1,200 for larger buildings, according to the Metropolis Group. Landlords who fail to supply or maintain required guards can also face misdemeanor charges carrying fines up to $500 and as much as six months in jail, on top of civil penalties, the same report notes.
Property owners are also required to distribute a mandatory window guard notice to tenants every January asking whether a child 10 or younger lives in the unit; if a tenant does not respond by February 15, the owner must inspect the apartment directly to confirm, according to Design 2147. City health rules also bar tenants and landlords from removing required guards to install window air conditioners — cooling units must instead be secured with one-way metal screws or brackets while keeping any surrounding gap at 4.5 inches or smaller, per the NYC Department of Health. The agency also warns that standard window screens are built only to keep insects out and cannot support a child's weight.
A Safety Campaign With Decades of Results
New York City's window guard requirements trace back to the “Children Can't Fly” public health initiative, launched in 1972 by the city's health department alongside pediatric health specialists. The campaign led to the nation's first mandatory window guard legislation in 1976 and has reduced childhood window fall fatalities and injuries in the city by 96%, according to the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, which notes reported window falls in the Bronx dropped 50% between 1973 and 1975 alone.
Nationally, an estimated 5,600 children aged 12 and under were treated in emergency departments in 2024 after falling from windows, with roughly 34% requiring hospital admission, per 2026 data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The agency has also found that 80% of window fall fatalities occur during the warmer months between May and October, a window that includes Sunday's Fordham Heights incident.
