Tenants forced to use fire escape to enter building

From PIX11:

Tenants of an Upper West Side five-story walk-up were briefly forced to use the fire escape to access their apartments after their landlord told them about plans to renovate the building’s only staircase.

The Department of Buildings has since issued a stop work order on the West 83rd Street building after the tenants, some of whom are elderly, had an emergency meeting with Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal.

The situation was even worse for some tenants. They don't have access to the fire escape from their apartment.

HPD ignores fire escape safety complaints

From NBC:

More than 2,000 complaints about fire escape safety were called in to 311 over the last year and a half, resulting in nearly 500 violations, an I-Team investigation has found. Many of those problems went months before being fixed.

Data from 311 shows it takes an average of three weeks for investigators to resolve safety complaints about fire escapes. For some residents, it can take months to get a response. Some complaints are quite serious, from blocked exits to missing slats. Rust is another common violation.

City halts fire escape removal

From DNA Info:

The architect pushing to remove fire escapes from two SoHo buildings has been ordered to stop, according to city officials and records.

Joseph Pell Lombardi, an architect specializing in preservation of historic buildings, wants to remove the front and back fire escapes from 69 and 71 Greene St. as part of a renovation of the two buildings.

The Department of Buildings approved Lombardi's application for 69 Greene St. last week and Lombardi expected to meet with a plan examiner this week regarding 71 Greene St.

But the DOB issued a stop work order for 69 Greene St. after an inspection on Monday, records show. A DOB spokesman said Lombardi "failed an audit for code compliance."

The stop-work order specifies that Lombardi must verify tenant safety "such as egress and safety with active [construction] jobs," and specifically mentions sprinklers. It also mentions "conformance with approved jobs" and "performing permitted work in accordance with plans/permits."

FDNY disagrees with DOB's fire escape removal permit

From DNA Info:

An architect pushing to remove fire escapes from two SoHo buildings has received permission from the city to move forward with one of the projects, city records show.

The Department of Buildings approved Joseph Pell Lombardi's application to remove the fire escapes from 69 Greene St. last Thursday, records show.

Lombardi, a preservation specialist, wants to remove the fire escapes from 69 and 71 Greene St. as part of a renovation of the two buildings. He has said that the fire escapes are not old enough to be considered historic, and insists that they are unsafe.

But residents are concerned that removing them would affect their ability to evacuate in the event of a fire — their only other egress is an internal staircase made of wood — and an FDNY engineer has submitted written testimony to the city expressing misgivings about the fire escapes' removal.

That same FDNY engineer, John Yacovone, sent an email Wednesday to the building's management company, Esquire Management, "respectfully request[ing] that you cease and desist" with any alterations to the building geared toward the fire escape removal, after worried tenants reported construction workers nailing the door to the second floor fire escape shut last Monday.

The whole East Village is illegally converted

From the Wall Street Journal:

City inspections of more than 50 buildings in the East Village following the fatal March 26 explosion and fire at 121 Second Ave. have turned up violations related to gas lines, fire safety and illegal construction, city records show.

The blast, which leveled three buildings and killed two people, is being treated as a case of suspected gas diversion, officials have said. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is investigating to determine if any criminal charges are warranted.

Two weeks after the blast, area residents remain concerned that problems that bedeviled 121 Second Ave. leading up to the explosion—a record of unlicensed construction work and building and housing violations—could be mirrored in their own buildings, some of which have records of complaints and violations going back years.

At one building across the street from the blast, gas has been shut off after inspections revealed construction without a permit and potentially illegal gas siphoning, records and interviews show. At another, Department of Buildings records show a violation for an improperly placed gas meter and new complaints alleging illegal boiler work, among other concerns.

Since March 26, the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has issued violations at a number of buildings on the block, ranging from faulty locks, doors, handrails and windows to blocked fire escapes, lack of gas and failure to register as a multiple family dwelling with the department. One building was cited by the department for illegal use of the cellar as residential space, records show.

Recent complaints to the Department of Buildings for buildings on the block show concerns about unlicensed construction, fire hazards, and illegal conversion of space for bedrooms.

Lock your windows!

From DNA Info:

Astoria has been hit with dozens of home burglaries in recent months with suspects using fire escapes to climb in through unlocked windows, police said.

The NYPD recorded 41 such incidents in the 114th Precinct since mid-December, the majority of which took place between 35th and 49th Streets between 30th and 34th Avenues, Deputy Inspector Kevin Maloney said.

The string of break-ins came after dozens more occurred in Forest Hills and Rego Park during the past six months, police said. In those, the burglar also entered through open windows.

In Queens North, which includes Astoria and Forest Hills, the last police statistics show burglary went up more than 25 percent through Feb. 23, even as the number of reported break-ins dropped more than 4 percent citywide during that period. Seven of the incidents took place on 34th Street between 30th and 31st Avenues, Maloney said.

Police believe the burglar or burglars are gaining access to the roofs of residential buildings, then walking down the fire escapes to look for unsecured rear windows. The rooftops of many buildings in the area are connected, allowing the suspects to hit more than one building at a time, police said.

Once inside, the burglars make off with handheld electronics, cash and jewelry, Maloney said.

There's also been a rash of burglaries in Ozone Park.

Stairs collapse, fire escape unstable, FDNY evacuates kids from roof

From Daily News

From CBS New York:

An early-morning rooftop party in the East Village ended Sunday morning after a stairwell collapsed, sending a man falling at least two stories.

More than 30 college-aged students at the party were trapped on the roof after the accident that occurred around 1 a.m., an FDNY spokesman said. Firefirghters used a ladder and cherry-picker basket to rescue them from the top of the seven-story building at 159 Second Ave., near East 10th Street.

“They also tried to get everyone off the fire escape, but the fire escape is not deemed to code,” a partygoer who lives in the building told WCBS 880′s Monica Miller reported. “So when they were actually trying to get people off, some of the rings were breaking. So that’s why they were bucketing people because there was literally no access in and out of that building, and the elevator wasn’t working either.”

The man who fell was admitted to Bellevue Hospital. He injured his leg and suffered broken ribs and a collapsed lung, 1010 WINS’ Glenn Schuck reported. The man was apparently jumping up and down on the landing.

Fire escape victims back in their Bronx apartments

Fire escape remover under investigation

From CBS 2:

New York City is launching an investigation into possible violations in dozens of buildings owned by the Bronx landlord who removed all the fire escapes from a University Heights apartment building.

Taking all the fire escapes from an apartment building is clearly a no-no, which could mean even more trouble for Goldfarb Properties.

Landlord removes fire escape, tenants forced to vacate

From Eyewitness News:

Residents of 2400 Webb Avenue in the Bronx, many with children, disabilities and pets, are being forced to pack up everything they have and move to a new home.

The evacuations come after the owners of the rent-stabilized apartment building put every single resident at risk by removing the fire escapes, leaving hundreds of tenants in a potential death trap.

The building had been under renovations. Then, once the city stumbled upon the missing lifelines, they jumped into action and slapped violations against the owner. On Monday, they made the very difficult decision to vacate.

By 6 p.m. on Tuesday, all residents must leave, meaning the victims had a mere 24 hours to pack up their lives. Extra security will be on every floor just in case. The fire chief says the building managers never really explained why.

It could be months before new fire escapes are installed, and many residents fear that this was all just a sinister ploy to get rid of them and jack up the rent.

The building's owner has offered to put the residents up in hotels until they can move back in.