NEW YORK — The lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan said the 15 men were among those kept locked in their rooms by corrections officers as a fire burned through a housing unit for people with acute medical conditions requiring infirmary care or Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant housing. It claims the men “choked on toxic black smoke, some vomiting, some losing consciousness, all gasping for air” while corrections department staffers fled to safety. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “The idea that detainees who have not been convicted of any crime can be locked inside of a burning building and left to suffer and die is to most Americans, a barbaric notion reserved for movies and television shows depicting the cruelties and brutality of the past,” the lawsuit reads. Spokespeople for the city corrections department and health and hospitals department declined to comment, referring instead to the city’s law department, which said it is reviewing the suit and will respond in the litigation. The April 6, 2023, blaze, which injured 15 jail staffers and five inmates, was set by a 30-year-old inmate with a history for starting jailhouse fires.