Queens is burning again: Makeshift boarding house goes up in flames and kills 3 people in Jamaica Estates

Update. 17 people were living in this house. Queens Borough Redundancy/President Donnie Richards called the fire "preventable", which is pretty far-fetched considering these boarders could only afford to live virtually on top of each other because the city built a bunch of towers in the city's housing connect system that were 80% market rate. The landlord decided to put the fire out himself and waited to call 911. The City Of Yes will fix this.

 Firehouse

Three men died in a Queens fire early Sunday that tore through a house full of illegally converted apartments — with panicked survivors leaping out of windows to escape the flames, FDNY officials said.

The two-alarm blaze broke out on Chevy Chase St. near Henley Road in Jamaica Estates about 1:30 a.m., officials said, with the inferno soon bursting through the windows and roof.

FDNY officials described the house as a firetrap, with no apparent smoke detectors, makeshift walls and occupants packed into apartments on the first and second floor as well as the cellar and attic.

One of the survivors described making a desperate escape as his father died leaping out of a second-story window.

“There was a lot of smoke inside. We cannot get out. I broke the window so we can just get out of the window. This is the only way,” said Abdullah Zaher, 25. “There was no flames upstairs. Smoke! My father jumped, my brother jumped, and I jumped in the end.”

Zaher’s hand bled heavily from breaking the window as he spoke to the Daily News hours later. His father didn’t survive.

“He was everything to me, literally everything to me. He was a friend, he was a father, he was a giver. Literally everything. There was food, he would give me the food,” Zaher said. “He’s still working, trying to survive. He was a chauffeur.. Uber driver.”

Firefighters found three men dead at the scene, ages 45, 52 and 67, according to police.

“There’s no evidence to us at this time that there’s a working smoke detector in this house,” FDNY Commissioner Robert Tucker told reporters at the scene. “And there’s a lot of evidence of extension cords and other carelessness.”

At least eight residents were hurt but survived, including three injured jumping out of second-floor and attic windows, according to police sources. One of the survivors is in critical condition, according to FDNY officials.

FDNY Chief of Department John Esposito described the scene in the house.

“When our units arrived, they had fire out the windows of the first floor. The fire had extended to the second floor and attic and these were all living spaces,” he said. “There were makeshift walls. The means of egress were substandard, exits blocked, stairways blocked.”

“There was a wall through the middle of the kitchen, which was very abnormal,” he added. “There’s makeshift access to the second floor, which allows the fire to spread much quicker upstairs.”

Four firefighters suffered minor injuries in the blaze, which the FDNY brought under control by about 3 a.m.

The house is listed in city records as a single-family home, but dozens of Buildings Department complaints dating as far back as 2008 show neighbors and residents complaining that it was illegally converted into a roominghouse.

The most recent complaint, from February 2023, reads, “The home owner [has] a mental disabled individual living in the basement. The homeowner built a half wall in the kitchen so someone can live there … there is approximately 12 to 14 people in the house.”

“It’s so frustrating because we’ve been watching this unfold for years. I called 311. My husband called 311. Many of the neighbors called 311,” said Steve Fischer, 67, who lives across the street on the upper-class tree-lined block. “We knew based on what we saw that it was being used as an illegal roominghouse.”

“It wasn’t for lack of many people trying to alert the city that there was something illegal going on,” he added.

Buildings Department officials said the owners of the house were hit with a violation in 2010 for illegally converting the basement into an apartment and in 2016 for work without a permit when they constructed two wood-frame structures in the back and side yards.

Since then, the Buildings Department has received several 311 calls complaining about illegal conversion conditions — but inspectors were unable to get into the building for one visit in 2020 and three visits in 2023, agency officials said.

“Calls would prompt people from the city to show up. Supposedly they would knock. The guy was not an idiot. He wouldn’t answer the door,” Fischer said of the landlord. “It’s so frustrating because it was so avoidable. … I hope he is charged criminally.”

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Tony Rock, 40, who paid about $1,000 a month to live in a first-floor room, dived out of a window to escape the fire.

“I heard screaming, the guy upstairs above me … begging to get out of the room. He’s in there dying,” Rock said.  “I saw him jump out the window.”

Nearly 20 years of complaints on four pages on the NYC Buildings website

 

Does Joe Crowley really believe his own bullshit? (part 1)

Someone brought this to my attention. Mr. Crowley sat for a video that not only assails Donald Trump but also the fact that he lived in a semi-suburban community that had big houses and lots of trees. This describes a nice chunk of Crowley's district, so one has to wonder why he doesn't call out his own constituents for being white supremacists as he believes this is what led to Trump becoming an asshole?

Video is here.

An icy dilemma

From CBS 2:

A water leak is creating dangerous, slippery conditions on a sidewalk in a Queens neighborhood.

As CBS2’s Dave Carlin reported exclusively Thursday, complaints are pouring in. But the water is still flowing and turning into ice in the cold.

A two-story cascade of water has created icy dangers on the sidewalk to the below-grade Grand Central Parkway Service Road between Aberdeen and Tudor roads.

The unwanted waterfall started gushing over the top of a wall more than a week ago.

Jamaica Estates house is lit this holiday

"The Gurino Family house Christmas Lights display in Jamaica Estates, Queens, NYC is a must see! Located at the intersection of 80th Drive and Chevy Chase Street."

Trump home has illegal conversion inside

From DNA Info:

The city issued a partial vacate order at President Donald Trump’s boyhood home, which has recently been listed on Airbnb, after the owners illegally converted the basement into an apartment, city records show.

The five-bedroom, Tudor-style house, at 85-15 Wareham Place in the affluent Jamaica Estates neighborhood, where Trump lived until he was 4, was sold at an auction in January for $2.14 million. In August, the new owners listed it on Airbnb with a price tag of $725 per night.

But shortly after that, the city received complaints from Community Board 8 and via 311 about the illegal conversion conducted in the basement, officials said.

The basement is not part of the Airbnb listing which advertises the other portions of the house, according to Airbnb.

CB8 District Manager Marie Adam-Ovide said Friday that the board received a number of phone calls and emails with complaints that there are people illegally living in the basement.

“Once we receive complaints, we have to act,” she said.

CB8 then notified the Department of Buildings, which referred the case to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement investigating illegal conversions.

Trump home to be a rental

From Curbed:

The modest Jamaica Estates home where President Donald Trump lived for his early childhood is about to become available once again—this time as a rental unit. According to Mansion Global, the 2,000-square-foot home will be listed with Jason Friedman, a broker who primarily works on Long Island, for “somewhere between $3,500 and $4,000 a month.”

The two-story brick and stucco house dates back to the mid-century, and the Trump family lived there when Donald was still a baby. They moved by the time he was four years old, but that was long enough to give it some cachet.

Trump's boyhood home has gone to rack and ruin

From DNA Info:

When President Donald Trump’s boyhood home in Jamaica Estates sold in March for $2.14 million, locals expected property values in their neighborhood to soar.

Months-long media buzz surrounding the sale of the property at 85-15 Wareham Pl. near Henley Road — where Trump was born and lived until he was 4 — included speculations that one day it might become an official historic site.

But a little more than two months after the sale closed, the house appears to be deserted and knee-deep grass which has not been trimmed since March shelters various pests and neighborhood cats, neighbors complain.

“It’s been left unkempt and anyone who sees it is going to consider it abandoned,” said Deborah Ayala-Braun, who lives next door, and worries that properties in the area may now see a drop in value instead.

Jamaica Estates house needs some TLC

From the Queens Chronicle:

A boarded-up, derelict house at 84-38 Charlecote Ridge in Jamaica Estates is concerning some in the neighborhood.

“I am so furious about this whole thing,” Community Board 8 Chairwoman Martha Taylor told the Chronicle. “It’s just crazy.”

Windows at the house are fragmented and trash can be found on the ground surrounding it. A vacate order was issued at the site earlier this year due to a lack of hot water, water supply and heat, missing windows and the building being in total disrepair, CB 8 said.

According to Taylor, the vacate order has likely been lifted — a hypothesis drawn from a Dec. 14 email sent from HPD to the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs, and then to CB 8 — although it should not have been.

The email, which was provided to the Chronicle, says, “HPD was able to gain access to the above referenced property today. The building has essential services. For this reason we will not be vacating the building.”

Taylor is doubtful.

“The violations can’t be cured without them going to Buildings, getting a permit and then having master plumbers certify that they’re fixed,” she said. “As far as I know, all they have is electricity ... . They cannot cure those violations without a master plumber.”

Santa's eye view of Jamaica Estates lights

From NBC:

A view of a brightly decorated holiday home at 80th Drive and Chevy Chase Street in Jamaica, Queens, as captured by Chopper 4 Monday evening. See more spectacular holiday homes in New York City!

Future crap site in Jamaica Estates?

"I'll betcha this is gonna be a piece o' crap soon.

180-28 Wexford Terrace in Jamaica Estates. Small house, huge, long driveway, over 7000 sf piece of land. For the last 15 years or so I've seen many different cars parked in its unpaved, largely unfinished front yard. I figured someone was renting out space to commuters to help pay their mortgage or heating bill. Turns out it's owned by a corporation. Recently sold for 700,000.

There's gotta be room for six or more families on that piece of land."

-Rick D.

Fire started at ex-squatter house

From PIX11:

We’ve told you all about 83-year-old Aida’s fight, finally evicting the squatters in February.

But in April, another concern: a suspicious fire started in some construction debris near the garage of Aida’s house.

When Byrne’s nephew Patrick came over, he couldn’t believe it.

“When I came in the morning the fence was completely down. He had a lot of lumber here, and it was burnt right here,” Patrick said.

The fire department hasn’t supplied an official report yet. Patrick doesn’t know who may have set the fire, nor do we. But it’s more than Aida should have to bear.

Help Me Howard enters house the Baileys left

From PIX11:

So Byrne has her home back. It will need work from the damage done: things like holes in a door and another door off its hinges. And she’ll have to check out the plumbing and electrical work.

But the Bailey’s are out. Now, Byrne says she’s going to sell the place.

Eyesore McMansion almost finished

From the Queens Chronicle:

Construction on the castle-like house at 179-16 Grand Central Pkwy. is moving steadily along, after more than a decade of oft-stalled construction and thousands of dollars in fines from the Department of Buildings.

Stakeholders are pleased that the building is no longer stuck mid-development. Though Community Board 8 District Manager Marie Adam-Ovide used to receive complaints about the house, she said that they stopped since construction resumed.

“Nobody likes to see those empty shells of houses and no one living there,” Jamaica Estates Association President Martha Taylor, who also serves on the community board, told the Queens Chronicle.
The property had been purchased in 2001; a DOB permit was applied for in 2003; construction began in 2005.

Jamaica Estates squatters are finally out

From WPIX:

Ex-NYPD cop Winston Bailey and his family finally got the boot from the Jamaica Estates home where they’d been living for more than two years without paying rent.

...On Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 16, the clock finally struck midnight. Time ran out for the Baileys. A city marshal and five NYPD cops showed up to get them out. They were evicted.

Byrne is grateful, but .. there’s always a “but” with these people.

The Baileys went back to court the next day. And according to Byrne, civil court Judge Louis Vilella gave them one hour a day for a week to get the rest of their belongings out of Byrne's house.

Judge Vilella will consult with the judge handling the federal bankruptcy action to make sure he’s not missing anything. And then he’s due to issue a ruling on Feb. 29, presumably a final ruling.

Woman scores eviction against deadbeat ex-cop tenant

From PIX11:

Aida has had to leave her ailing husband and fly up from Miami for court hearing after court hearing trying to get the Bailey’s out. Civil court, housing court, bankruptcy court.

Finally, she has an order telling them to get out. But because the Bailey’s filed for bankruptcy she may not get a penny of the money she says she’s owed.

We’ve been trying to help by getting to the bottom of this.

But you really have to watch the video to see the Bailey’s reaction when we came by. This is what Aida’s had to deal with.

The Bailey’s are supposed to be out by Jan. 15. We’ll see what happens and show you what the home looks like when they presumably depart.

She can't get them out

From PIX11:

Aida Byrne is in a bind. She and her husband moved out of a beautiful house in Jamaica Estates. They settled in Miami and were hoping to enjoy life in Florida. But her husband, Dr. Rodolfo Byrne, now is battling cancer. And the people to whom they rented their Queens home, Winston and Elaine Bailey, haven’t paid rent in almost two years. TWO YEARS!

Aida says the rent is 38-hundred dollars per month. And after two years she says she’s owed almost 100-thousand dollars in back rent and expenses. She’s been to court more times than she can count! She got a default judgment to evict the Bailey’s. But somehow the system fails her.

Here’s why. Every time Aida turns around, someone in the Bailey family seems to be declaring bankruptcy. And that can stop eviction proceedings even though Aida has a default judgment against the Bailey’s.

First it was the Bailey’s, themselves. Now it’s their daughter who isn’t on any lease. Aida can’t believe it.

Subway grate sidewalk mess on Hillside Ave

From Cleanup Jamaica Queens:

I first came across this awful site (one of many) in Jamaica, although since this is on the north side of Hillside Avenue this is technically Jamaica Estates, way back in 2010, when I first moved to this god forsaken place and who knows how long it was like this before that. Fast forward to 2015 and this mess is even worse. At 175-01 Hillside Avenue right near Bank of America and a MTA bus stop, sits some kind of I do not even know what to call this crap. It sits above the MTA subway grate and I guess our wonderful low-class residents figure it is a big garbage can, since all kinds of garbage gets tossed here. Besides all the garbage the whole thing is falling apart.

Weird deed fraud case in Jamaica Estates

From the Daily News:

The strange saga began on April 29 when Anita Chan returned from work to her Jamaica Estates home and found the locks changed — and three strangers inside, according to the complaint.

When she questioned them, the trio told her they were working with the bank that held the mortgage and she would not be allowed inside until she signed some documents, the complaint states.

Chan, 60, then told the intruders her husband, Wah Chan, was the sole property owner and that he was in China.

So they had her call him — then emailed him documents to sign, including a deed transfer.

While Wah Chan signed some of the paperwork, he did not sign the deed transfer, according to the complaint.

The next day, the accused home invaders let the poor woman back inside and gave her 10 minutes to retrieve some of her belongings, Brown said.

Inside, Chan discovered that the house on Grand Central Parkway had been ransacked, he said.

It wasn’t until May 16 that her 73-year-old husband returned from China and arrived at the house with a locksmith of his own.

Not only were jewelry, knives and cash missing, so were documents verifying ownership of his home, Brown said.

It wasn’t immediately clear why the trio allegedly targeted the Chans.

Jamaica Estates house: cool or crap?

From Curbed:

At first glance, this four-bedroom, four-bathroom home in Jamaica Estates is all harsh angles and clashing colors and dissonant window sizes. But open the door. Take a good, hard look at its incredibly shiny interiors, which tell another story. A more aggressive story. Probably a story from a decade that has passed. Fancy a grand piano and a sunken dance floor? A pool table and fully stocked bar in a basement den of debauchery? A black- and red-tiled hot tub, sauna, and steam room set-up? Mirrored walls galore? All of the above can be yours—for a mere $1.69 million.

...And a crappy New Year!

Above: Now
Below: Coming soon!