It happened on a cold early morning just an hour before sunrise, 6 days before Christmas, a 5-alarm fire engulfed a three family house. The inferno spread so rapaciously that it instantly killed three men as they desperately tried to flee while trapped in their rooms, their only exit was sliding doors by the balcony on the second floor, which were locked. It also torched the three floor house attached to it, making both structures inhabitable.
Before the deadly blaze the house was proficiently and exceedingly habitable. Since the fire was extinguished, a lot of mystery still surrounds this tragedy. Not much is known about the tenants; especially their names which have not been identified, notably the three who perished in the inferno except for their ethnicity. The one tenant who survived the destruction and the deaths, also refused to be identified.
This house had an incredible lengthy record of housing violations going back 4 years with over $200,000 in fines. Mostly in the last two years, the former landlord had repurposed what was once a nice two family house and transformed it into a makeshift boarding house with single room occupations constructing seven rooms on each floor from the basement to the attic. Even the garage wasn’t spared as the original landlord , Mumarrawa Mahmood, managed to convert it into a rental where the superintendent of the house lived and added more dwellings to it even after repeated visits and fines by the Department Of Buildings.
This house must have been a sanctuary for the victims of this city's perpetual housing crisis (especially in two terms under Mayor de Blasio), especially those working check to check and undocumented immigrants, essential workers mostly doing gig jobs delivering food or driving for apps and working construction building towers they will never afford to live in.
20 comments:
This is wrong wrong wrong on so many levels - we have to ask ourselves as to why the Democrats are perpetuating the exploitation of human beings. Cut the crap that they use. This is human exploitation and we all know that this is repeated in Queens a thousand times over and not a damn thing will happen to stop it. Nada. Nothing.
I, as most of the people I know, am a registered, Democrat. But this is not the Democratic Party of our youth or our parent's time. This garbage happened 150 years ago and the Boss Tweed of those days spewed the same BS garbage. LAWS WERE PASSED IN OUR GR GRANDPARENTS TIME TO STOP PEOPLE BEING TREATED LIKE THIS!!
This is not what our city is about. This is not what our country is about. And if this is what the Democrats are doing to build their base they can go to ..... as far as I am concerned.
How many such illegal boarding houses flourish in Queens? Too many - ten or twelve on every block. Which is a low ball estimate.
All owned by immigrants who believe themselves to be above the law- they are the worst when it comes to harassing tenants.
What a shame that the 3 dead can’t be named & the survivor won’t be named. There’s no wonder that sex trafficking is a booming business in Queens county-
They’ve got to launder the profits- real estate, houses are perfect. They put no money into repairs or maintenance and I would bet no hot water and no heat in the winter provided.
An added bonus when operating an illegal boarding house is that its all cash income - no need to let the city or IRS know they’re collecting inflated rents on these properties.no need to pay taxes on those rents.
Slumlord immigrants are all over Flushing !
Tons of LS4s left on doors by the Useless DOB.
Quote Krazy Mama Bear "Thanks for dying"... I need more rent money says the illegal boarding house owners.
As a NYC firefighter,I have been in hundreds of these death traps found on days we did building inspections,not a thing you can do to stop it
NOTHING these death traps are the result of Demacratic corruption,when you see the filth they live in you wonder if the hellhole they left might be better,15 in one room sharing a toilet and shower that hasent been cleaned in years,and then they go to work in kitchens to cook your dining experience,I do not eat out anymore,it's like Russian Roulette that your chef is not carrying a disease,I feel bad for these people
The politicians who right the laws to protect these shitholes from eviction orders are the true human traffickers,sex traffickers and slave owners,they all belong in HEll.
We need cheap labor and votes this is collateral damage
Well, then it's about time that some of those who think they are 'Woke' film this and then has a crew going around to Democratic politicians every time they go out in public and try to show this again and again - and film the politicians' reacion.
Then put the tapes on Youtube with a list of every politician whose district this exits - along with a phone number to their office.
There is no explanation why someone in this country should live like this. We do not live in 1850 or 1900.
Certainly explains the Covid hotspots - thanks Dems.
When the last white person leaves N.Y. those who remain will turn it into The Old Country,almost there.
Believe me if any tenant made a complaint to the City about the dangerous, life threatening conditions, the landlord/owner or so called managing agent would harass them endlessly every day and insist they need to move immediately. And proceed to do an illegal eviction if the tenant doesn't comply, these landlords take the law into their own hands.
The tenants are terrified of being homeless, which is why they don't call the City. Three deaths so the landlord could make more money under the table. Why isn't the landlord up on murder charges? Where's the tenants lives matter protests and banners?
A popular scam is a fake room mate, a countryman of the landlord, will rent out a room. This so called room mate doesn't live on the premises, doesn't do maintenance or much except take the inflated rent money that they demand on time. They're the strong arm of the landlord, who remember has lower taxes because they are not honest about how many people do live in the premises. Less money for the City of New York. When the fake room mate illegally evicts a tenant - in housing court tenant quickly discovers primary roommate isn't the landlord, has no way of finding out who the landlords are. There's another homeless person on the streets of NYC. And next day, fake room mate , puts the ads back up on Craigs List.
I thought the owner was Chinese and the cops found fuel soaked gloves in his car,has the owners nationality changed too?
And to think they came to my house in Bayside for a toilet I put in.
It says the original owner - Mahmood did the illegal partitions.maybe he sold it to a Chinese person.
I see,the owner is blaming Mahmood,I bought it this way Judge!
I don't know how those gas soaked gloves and gas can got in my car?
JQ, you did your readers a disservice by not telling us to go check out the rest of the story on your Impunity City. What a trip! The new landlord couldn't evict all these illegal tenants to make way for rich hipsters, so he burnt the place down with the tenants inside? And the City knows this, but hasn't done a damn thing to prosecute? This is a gigantic scandal being totally ignored!
@Anon re: disservice
I put the link atop like always. And believe it or not, hipsters aren't moving to that area. Nowhere near a train station. They are all going to move to Roosevelt Ave in Jackson Heights and Corona once those luxury public housing towers get done
Why hasn't Eric Chen been charged with murder and arson?
How about insurance fraud? They probably burnt it down for the insurance money.
Why aren't the news media following up on this story? Maybe the survivor doesn't want his name out there because he's one of the owners? How does anyone know he's not Eric Chen? Chinese people flip around different parts of their names, will use English names but have their Chinese names on passports or ID.
The description of how they died is horrible.
Last anon:
The survivor was not an Asian person but one of the tenants that wasn't trapped on the second and third floor. Two other tenants/squatters were not at home when the fire got ignited. As for why the landlord wasn't charged even though he was frequently showing up at the house trying to get rid of them and collecting rent, that's something that will probably be figured out on Law and Order SVU before the real NYPD figures it out.
I believe Sen. Ramos and Councilman Moya or Dromm represent this district where this house is.
None of the elected officials or Asian groups like Asian Americans for Equality show any interest in these deaths? Tragic - where are the protests from housing groups over this!!!?
If they had paid rent at any time they’re tenants FYI - squatters implies they had no relationship w/the owner
Post a Comment