People gather Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil outside the Bronx apartment building that was the scene of the city’s deadliest fire in decades.

Yuki Iwamura / AP

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Yuki Iwamura / AP

People gather Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil outside the Bronx apartment building that was the scene of the city’s deadliest fire in decades.

Yuki Iwamura / AP

Details of the 17 victims of the devastating Bronx apartment complex fire over the weekend are slowly emerging. Many of those who died are believed to be immigrants from West Africa as well as part of the local Muslim community.

The Gambian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Facebook that it was “deeply saddened” to announce that 11 Gambians, including six children, were killed in the blaze on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office said authorities were working to confirm the identities of the victims “through a careful forensic process.” The New York Police Department said the victims were between the ages of

Authorities say those killed included nine adults and eight children. It is believed that a radiator in a unit on a lower level started the fire. The spokesperson for the medical examiner’s office said that for the 17 victims, the cause of death was smoke inhalation and the deaths were deemed accidental.

A vigil for the victims took place Tuesday evening.

A person prays on Monday outside the Bronx building where the fire occurred a day earlier.

Yuki Iwamura / AP

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Yuki Iwamura / AP

A person prays on Monday outside the Bronx building where the fire occurred a day earlier.

Yuki Iwamura / AP

Members of the West African community who live around the 19-story building gathered to provide cash, clothing, food and prayers to the families of the dead and survivors.

Several of the victims were patrons of a local mosque – Masjid-ur-Rahmah – which is a few blocks from the fire site.

“These are the same people who prayed with us in this center and the same children who died – they came here every Saturday and Sunday,” said the mosque’s imam, Musa Kabba, who spoke with the member station of NPR, WNYC. “It’s going to be a little tough, but we’re going to be able to cope with it.”

Many of Kabba’s followers came specifically from The Gambia, Niger and Mali.

Momodou Sawaneh, the founder of the Gambian Youth Organization, said the building was a sanctuary for the Gambian community in particular.

“I know people who have been here for 30 years, 40 years,” he told WNYC. “This building is an identity of the Gambian community, which is why it is very tragic.”

The Gambian Youth Organization has also raised funds for their community. A GoFundMe page created by the group has so far raised more than $ 900,000 for victims.

Individual fundraisers have popped up online detailing the loss of several individual family members. City officials have yet to confirm the names of the victims, and efforts to contact these campaigns and their family members have been unsuccessful.

Volunteers prepare donations of clothing, food and other items for those displaced by a fire at a nearby building in the Bronx.

Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images

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Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images

Volunteers prepare donations of clothing, food and other items for those displaced by a fire at a nearby building in the Bronx.

Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images

Initial reports indicate that entire families have been killed in the blaze.

Nhuma Darame wrote on a GoFundMe page she created for her cousin, Fatima Drammeh, that her cousin was at work when she heard a fire break out in her apartment building.

Drammeh, according to the page, lost his 50-year-old mother, 12-year-old brother, two 19 and 21-year-old sisters. Drammeh’s 16-year-old brother, Yagub, was rescued and hospitalized.

“As a community, it is our duty to come together during the periods [sic] like that and help each other in any way possible, ”Darame wrote.

The page raised over $ 95,000 for the family.

The loss was deeply felt outside of New York City.

Gambian Ambassador Dawda Docka Fadera traveled from Washington, DC to New York to stand with Mayor Eric Adams at a press conference on the blaze.

“I think a lot of Gambians who came here, they stayed there before moving elsewhere. It was kind of a first stopover, this building. It’s a building that Gambians are very attached to,” Docka said. Fadera to CNN. “It is so sad that this horrific and tragic incident has claimed so many lives and left so many people fighting for their lives.”

The windows of the building are broken following the fire.

Matt Rourke / AP

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Matt Rourke / AP

The windows of the building are broken following the fire.

Matt Rourke / AP

Haji Dukuray told reporters he lost five of his family in the blaze.

Dukuray told the New York Post as his 37-year-old niece, Haja Dukureh; her husband was also called Haji Dukuray, 49; and their three children, Mustapha Dukureh, 12, Mariam Dukureh, 11, and Fatoumata Dukureh, 5, all died in the fire.

“We have faith, so we hold on to our faith,” he told the To post. “We hold on as much as we can. We support each other.”

The impact was also felt far away in The Gambia.

Adama Barrow, the country’s president, issued a statement declaring “deep sorrow” at the enormous loss of life. He said he continued to monitor the development of the fire.

Hansi Lo Wang of NPR contributed to this report.