Sunday, December 20, 2009

Woodside fire victim suing city

From the NY Post:

A man badly burned last month in a fatal Queens blaze in which firefighters were sent to the wrong address plans to sue the city.

Shari Ahammed, 30, spent 18 days in a burn unit after his hair caught fire as he tried to alert fellow residents of the illegally subdivided house in Woodside.

Ahammed's lawyer, Herb Subin, said he'll file a notice of claim for unspecified damages Monday.

"The Department of Buildings should never have let this place be carved up into five apartments," Subin said.

"And the Fire Department should not have sent fire engines to the wrong house. The delay was over five minutes."

The delay happened because a dispatcher typed a wrong address into a computer. Three people died and four others were injured.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about suing the contractor who installed jail house bars over every single window and door, making it impossible to get out the building. If not for the bars everyone could have gotten out alive.

Anonymous said...

Maspeth Mom says.
Absolutely, I cannot believe someone has not come up with a decorative bar for the inside of the house that can be opened with a code or some type of device that would be out of reach of someone who was trying to break in. Those iron bars are a death trap.

Anonymous said...

How about suing himself for living in something he knew was illegal!

Anonymous said...

The city should turn around and sue this guy for living in an illegal apartment and putting firefighters at risk. Anything for a quick buck in this city. This is why the city has no money. Put a stop to these frivilous lawsuits.

faster340 said...

"The Department of Buildings should never have let this place be carved up into five apartments,"

And you didn't know this? You have at least 50% liability here. Anybody can see a house of that size should not have had 5 apartments.

Anonymous said...

Go after the landlord. go after the DHCR, HPD and DOB for doing nothing when they could have cited the premises for illegal conversion.

Anonymous said...

Go after the community board and city council.

They are at the base of this mess.

Anonymous said...

How about taking the home away from the owner and using the proceeds of the sale of the house to pay the lawsuit.

Anonymous said...

All the houses on this block had fire trap bars on the windows -- and still have them. I've even seen them on inaccessible second and third floors.

Anonymous said...

bars on every window, 5x-10x over occupied...


Live like a rat, die like a rat.