The deadly Legionnaires’ outbreak gripping Harlem has city officials in hot water — as locals accused them Friday of dropping the ball on life-saving inspections and needlessly slow-walking revealing exactly where the disease hit.

Four people in New York City's Harlem neighbourhood have died from an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, an aggressive and potentially deadly form of pneumonia. The city has seen 99 confirmed cases with 17 people in hospital with the infection, according to the New York City Department of Health.

In the five ZIP codes affected by the outbreak, the number of inspections fell more dramatically than in the rest of the city.