NEW YORK -- A teenage girl has been accused of starting the three-alarm fire that ripped through a Bronx apartment building Saturday, affecting more than a dozen families and injuring several firefighters, authorities said.

Police said the 19-year-old allegedly lit a mattress on fire inside the six-story apartment complex in University Heights where she lives with her family, igniting the fast-moving blaze.

She was charged Sunday with second-degree arson. Information on an attorney wasn't immediately available.

About 150 firefighters responded to the fire on Cedar Avenue at about 10 a.m. Saturday; the flames spread quickly through the top floor.

"I looked out the window and saw smoke and then me and my mom we just ran down the stairs," said Edward Tavarez, a resident in the building.

Officials said it took firefighters an hour and a half to control the blaze. Six firefighters were treated for minor injuries, including burns.

More from NBCNewYork.com

All of the building's residents escaped the blaze unharmed.

Three apartments were completely destroyed by flames while several other units were severely damaged by water, authorities said.

The Red Cross said 17 families registered for recovery assistance; eight of those families were housed in temporary emergency housing and the rest either declined housing help or were able to return to their apartments after firefighters doused the flames.

Despite any lost or damaged property, residents said they were grateful to be alive.

"I don't care about what I lost in there but everything is all right. Everyone is all right," said Luby Cheoc.

Julie Larsen Maher/Bronx Zoo via Reuters, file

Pattycake, the first gorilla born in New York City, sits in the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo. She has died aged 40.

Pattycake, the first gorilla born in New York City, has died aged 40, the operators of the Bronx Zoo announced late Sunday.

She was suffering from chronic cardiac problems and was under medical care due to her advanced age, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement.

"Millions of children in New York City grew up with Pattycake at the Bronx Zoo," said Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo and WCS executive vice president. "Pattycake was a very special animal and her presence will be deeply missed."

The median life span for gorillas in zoos is 37 years, and Pattycake was the 31st oldest gorilla of the 338 presently residing in North American zoos, WCS said.

Pattycake was born at the Central Park Zoo on Sept. 3, 1972 and lived there with her parents Kongo and Lulu until moving to the Bronx Zoo in 1983.

She had 10 infants while at the Bronx Zoo, including twins born in 1995. Her offspring currently reside in zoos in Omaha, Louisville, Utah, Detroit, Boston and Buffalo.

Related:

Gang trafficking of endangered great apes prompts global action

Baby gorilla on black market for $40,000 is rescued

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 1, 2013 4:16 AM EDT

A Bronx high school principal says prom will be canceled unless every student in the senior class graduates on time, according to a published report.

The College Institute for Math and Science in Bronxdale is on track to have a 90 percent graduation rate, which is substantially above the city's 66 percent average, but principal Shadia Alvarez insists that isn't high enough, reports The New York Post.

Alvarez hung a poster in the hallway near her office last week to emphasize her point. In addition to reiterating her ultimatum, the poster says, according to the Post, "Will there be a Senior Prom? How will you make this happen?"

Read original story on NBCNewYork.com

Students on track to graduate tell the paper they did make it happen for themselves -- and prom is supposed to be about rewarding those who studied hard and did well, not penalizing them for the potential lapses of their classmates.

And Alvarez is demanding no small feat. Only seven schools in New York City recorded a 100 percent graduation rate in 2012, and all of those schools have special enrollment requirements, reports the Post.

The principal declined the Post's requests for comment, but said through a school staffer that she had no idea which poster the paper was inquiring about. A Department of Education spokeswoman also said she was not aware of the prom poster.

NBC New York

Bahsid Mclean, 23-year-old son of Tania Byrd, was charged with second-degree murder, among other charges Wednesday.

A 23-year-old man accused of killing his mother, cutting up her body with a saw and dumping it on the curb throughout their Bronx neighborhood said at a court appearance Thursday that his mother was dying and that he was trying to help.

Bahsid McLean, 23, was denied bail at the appearance where he was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his mother, 45-year-old Tania Byrd.

"I didn't do anything wrong," McLean shouted in court. McLean, wearing a black garbage bag, had several other outbursts during the court appearance where he is also charged with unlawful dissection of a human body. It was not immediately clear what he meant when he said his mother was dying.

Read original story on NBCNewYork.com

McLean's attorney said outside of court that his client is not taking the medication he needs, but would not specify what that was or the condition he has.

McLean's friend, William Harris, 26, faces the same unlawful dissection charge for allegedly helping McLean dispose of Byrd's body. Lawyer information for Harris was not immediately available.

Law enforcement officials tell NBC 4 New York that both men have admitted to chopping up the body and using a shopping cart to dump the parts along the curb in Morrisania, but each is pointing the finger at the other for killing Byrd.

Officials say the two men tell different stories. The son says he left the apartment he shared with his mother at about 3 a.m. Monday to go to the ATM. When he returned, he has told investigators, his friend had stabbed Byrd to death and threatened to kill him and his 6-year-old brother if he didn't help get rid of the body.

His friend, meanwhile, has told investigators that the son told him he killed his mother, and showed him a photograph of her, dead, asking for his friend's help in disposing of her corpse.

The two suspects agree that they went to a Bronx hardware store to purchase supplies for the job, including a power saw and gloves. Investigators say there are bloodstains at the apartment, and that it appears someone tried to clean up the mess with bleach.

An empty power saw box was also found there. The saw was found at the apartment of the friend's girlfriend, officials said.

Law enforcement officials say the pair cut up the body on Monday night and dumped it around 9:30 p.m. Surveillance camera video shows the son in the apartment building lobby, leaving the elevator with numerous bags, and then video outside the building shows two men wheeling away a shopping cart.

Officials say a man walking his dog along 158th Street in Morrisania early Tuesday morning came upon a plastic bag of what he thought were books. As he moved to open the bag, he noticed a vehicle circling the block and became nervous, so he took the bag around the corner and looked inside, finding two hands and a shoulder.

He sent his son to call police and continued walking the dog. About two blocks away on Eagle Avenue he and the dog came upon a suitcase, and the dog sat down next to it. The man opened the suitcase and found a woman's torso, wearing a bra, according to law enforcement officials.

Responding police found a plastic bag further down Eagle Avenue that contained a leg and a foot, and then nearby on Cauldwell Avenue, they found a black suitcase with a leg and the woman's head.

Previous report on this story:

• Two NYC men arrested after woman killed, cut up with power saw

A 23-year-old man and his friend have been arrested in connection with the gruesome killing of his mother, whose body was cut up with a power saw and scattered in bags throughout their Bronx neighborhood, law enforcement officials tell NBC 4 New York.

Both men have admitted to chopping up the body and using a shopping cart to dump the parts along the curb in Morrisania, but each is pointing the finger at the other for killing the mother, 45-year-old Tania Byrd, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

The initial charges do not include murder. Bahsid McLean, 23, and William Harris, 26, are both charged with unlawful dissection of a human body, among other charges. They were in custody and lawyer information was not immediately available.

Read more at NBCNewYork.com

Law enforcement officials tell NBC 4 New York that the two men tell different stories. The son says he left the apartment he shared with his mother at about 3 a.m. Monday to go to the ATM. When he returned, he has told investigators, his friend had stabbed Byrd to death and threatened to kill him and his 6-year-old brother if he didn't help get rid of the body.

His friend, meanwhile, has told investigators that the son told him he killed his mother, and showed him a photograph of her, dead, asking for his friend's help in disposing of her corpse.

The two suspects agree that they went to a Bronx hardware store to purchase supplies for the job, including a power saw and gloves. Investigators say there are bloodstains at the apartment, and that it appears someone tried to clean up the mess with bleach.

An empty power saw box was also found there. The saw was found at the apartment of the friend's girlfriend, officials said.

Law enforcement officials say the pair cut up the body on Monday night and dumped it around 9:30 p.m. Surveillance camera video shows the son in the apartment building lobby, leaving the elevator with numerous bags, and then video outside the building shows two men wheeling away a shopping cart.

Officials say a man walking his dog along 158th Street in Morrisania early Tuesday morning came upon a plastic bag of what he thought were books. As he moved to open the bag, he noticed a vehicle circling the block and became nervous, so he took the bag around the corner and looked inside, finding two hands and a shoulder.

He sent his son to call police and continued walking the dog. About two blocks away on Eagle Avenue he and the dog came upon a suitcase, and the dog sat down next to it. The man opened the suitcase and found a woman's torso, wearing a bra, according to law enforcement officials.

Responding police found a plastic bag further down Eagle Avenue that contained a leg and a foot, and then nearby on Cauldwell Avenue, they found a black suitcase with a leg and the woman's head.

People who knew Byrd were stunned about the grisly killing.

"Every time you see her, she would have a smile on her face," said neighbor Chastity Agosto. "How could a son do that to his mother?

Police are investigating how a 5-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder in his home in The Bronx, New York City, Friday, authorities said.

The boy's mother and father were in their bedroom in Morrisania when they heard a pop noise shortly after 10:30 a.m., police said.

They rushed to their 5-year-old son's room and found him shot.

Police said it was not clear if the boy accidentally shot himself or if his 11-year-old brother accidentally shot him.

The father drove the boy to nearby Lincoln Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.

The investigation was continuing.

Police in the Bronx say they were able to catch a suspected rapist by tracking him through the cellphone he stole from his alleged victim.

The 15-year-old girl was walking home after getting off the 5 train in the Morris Park section of the Bronx Tuesday night when she was sexually assaulted, police said. Her attacker then stole her phone and fled.

Read more from NBCNewYork.com

Police were able to use the GPS-enabled Find My Phone app to track the phone, and hours later, the suspect was found not far from where the assault happened. 

The man, described as being in his 20s, was being questioned by police Wednesday.

NEW YORK -- A 17-year-old boy accused of throwing a 9-year-old boy off the roof of a Bronx apartment building pleaded not guilty Sunday.

Nine-year-old Freddy Martin was found Friday night on the pavement unconscious with severe body trauma in front of the five-story building on Nelson Avenue in Morris Heights. He was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital where he remains in critical condition.

On Saturday, police arrested his neighbor, 17-year-old Casmine Aska, who originally told investigators that he threw Martin off the roof after they got into a fight, a police source said. The boys are not related, but live in the same building.

But according to court documents, Aska now says he grabbed the boy by the legs and then slipped, causing Martin to fall.

Aska was arraigned Sunday on attempted murder, assault and reckless endangerment charges.

NEW YORK -- Nine people were injured when a fire ripped through a residential building in the Bronx on Thursday, officials said.

The blaze started at around 7:30 p.m. ET in Longstreet Avenue in Throgs Neck. Three children were among those hurt, according to authorities.

All nine victims were taken to Jacobi Medical Center. The three kids were listed in serious but stable condition.

More news from NBCNewYork.com

The cause of the fire remained under investigation late Thursday.