NY Post
An 8-year-old Queens boy died Sunday when the illegally converted attic apartment were he lived was engulfed in a massive blaze — which also injured six others, including two of the youngster’s brothers, who leaped out a window to escape, officials and neighbors said.
Tighani Jones — who went by “Tiggy” and “Ti – Ti” — was found unresponsive by firefighters who arrived at the blaze at the two-story building on 160th Avenue in Springfield Gardens at 2:28 a.m. to find a deadly inferno.
“The second-floor was fully engulfed in fire when we arrived,” said FDNY Battalion Chief Pat Ginty. “Two children jumped to survive.”
Neighbor Travis Lewis, 18, said he could hear screams from the home.
“Then a burst of fire [came] out of the side of the house. Then glass started breaking cause people jumped out windows around back,” he said.
“The family was running up and down the street screaming. They just escaped… They were bleeding from breaking the glass and jumping out the windows.
“They came to sit here, you can see the blood. I was lost for words.”
A department of buildings inspection said there was an apartment built illegally in the attic where Tighani was found unresponsive.
The building’s owner, who was cited for the construction violations, didn’t respond to a message. The FDNY said a smoke alarm was present but was not working.
9 comments:
So living in a basement is now legal, but an attic is not? Bill de Blahblah nonsense.
Another illegal conversion. Once again the city is doing nothing to address the problem.
And there's starting to be push to convert illegal basement apartments into legal ones-- by a snap of the fingers, I guess, or a slash of the pen.
It makes me sick that our city leaders keep pushing this housing crisis narrative when it's really a matter of wage stagnation that has gone on for decades. While the elite can purchase sky-mansion of many thousands of square feet, they think up creative new ways to wedge more people into stable middle-class neighborhoods and onto crowded subways, and into crowded schools. You have neighborhoods of homeowners that are pleasant enough, and now here come the transients to live in basements, or attics. It's good enough for them. Good enough for middle-class homeowners. REVOLUTION!!!!!!
how did an illegal conversion cause this - yes it was converted but this was due to the unattended candle.... is no one responsible for their actions?
I've had a personal rule based on my own observations over the years: when people move into housing that they could not afford without some sort of subsidy, they ruin the neighborhood. When you make living in a nice (read: $$) neighborhood possible to low income people by creating illegal apartments, you are doing your part in turning that neighborhood into a slum.
They say this fire was caused by a candle. Were these people behind in their utility bills, or just stupid and careless? By allowing low class people to live in a very nice house like this, the landlord family is putting themselves at risk as well.
The law has not been changed. The MDL - multiple dwelling law reads- in NYC (that includes the 5 boros - duh...) attics and basements are not to be used as dwelling places. How many adults, children, elderly, blind people, etc. had to either die, be permanently injured, lose their parents, relatives or children before this law was put in place?
Does anyone know how many firemen or EMT's were injured when they responded to this fire?
For this building the Certificate of Occupancy was defective, they should not have been living in that attic. The landlord knew they should never accepted rent money for the attic. At the end of the day, the landlord is responsible.
I wonder if anyone ever reported it to NYC Dept of Buildings. I guess it's easier to not give a crap - which is more Queens crap.
I wonder if the owner had any fire insurance or liability insurance. And I wonder if they were receiving government benefits or housing subsidies to live in that attic. Both of those would be extremely interesting.
It makes me sick that our city leaders keep pushing this housing crisis narrative when it's really a matter of wage stagnation that has gone on for decades. While the elite can purchase sky-mansion of many thousands of square feet, they think up creative new ways to wedge more people into stable middle-class neighborhoods and onto crowded subways, and into crowded schools. You have neighborhoods of homeowners that are pleasant enough, and now here come the transients to live in basements, or attics. It's good enough for them. Good enough for middle-class homeowners. REVOLUTION!!!!!!
That's how bayside used to be. Before I moved out of queens in 2005, houses here were affordable. Apartments here were affordable too. Then when I moved back,our elected officials sold us out to Asia and when they all moved in and decided to knock down our one family houses to create "2 family houses", our rents and home prices SKYROCKETED. It was almost like our government threw out the strict building laws and ALLOWED all of China and Korea to move in here overnight. Over the next 10 years, it was like a whirlwind of one family homes being bought up and torn down to make multifamily houses. It just got crazy within the last 15 years now. I now live in long island where I am very happy because they are not so laid back about illegal conversions and diminishing nice one family houses. But my parents still live in bayside and when I go to visit them, I see "2 family houses" going up every single week. And one house around the corner from my parents is being advertised as a "2 family house" but yet I see 3 watermeters on one side of the house and I dont know how many other watermeters on the other side, only one can guess. But how does the city allow these people to get away with such things? If you see 3 watermeters and 3 or 4 different mailboxes set up, wouldnt it be safe to assume that something illegal is going on and that that's not a "2 family house"?
Thanks to morons who have speculated and jacked home prices to more then DOUBLE almost TRIPLE what a normal house should cost. People have to convert basements and attics to a 3rd 4th income to pay the insane mortgage each month.
In sunnyside Asian realtors are blatant about illegal conversions ..do it because no one will check on you so again you need the extra income to pay the sky high prices the greedy homeowner wants for his retirement
Candles fifth leading cause of fire after cooking, heating, smoking, wiring.
So how about banning all those Greek fanatic oil lanterns that cause all their forest fires?
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