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

 

Queens man plans to convert his illicit commerical residential space into a commercial space

  

NBC New York

While Sampson Dahl's ex-girlfriend thought the old laundromat he was considering as a potential new apartment was "disgusting," he saw the potential for a great live-work space. He moved in a month later.

"I don't think a space needs to be a perfect representation of what we hope a simple mind looks like," Dahl tells CNBC Make It. "I think a space should be an imperfect representation of the people who are in it at that moment in their lives."

The 27-year-old production designer is no stranger to living in commercial spaces; he used to live in a warehouse in Chicago, so he knew going into his apartment hunt that he wanted to repeat that experience.

"I like the freedom of a commercial space, even though there are definitely fewer tenant rights," he said. "Something feels more ethical about moving into a vacant storefront that's been empty for years than taking up an apartment in some residential neighborhood that you're not familiar with."

Dahl found the former laundromat in Maspeth, Queens, in an online forum in 2019. A former tenant added a small kitchen that gives Dahl enough space to have a sink, stovetop, and toaster oven. The laundromat hasn't been in working order since 2005.

When he first moved in March 2019, the rent was $1750, and he paid two months' rent up front and an $875 security deposit. In 2021, his rent went up to $1850, and on average, he pays $120 for electricity and $60 for the internet.

Dahl is in production design, and one of the perks of the job is access to a lot of free furniture after the projects are done, so he's used that to decorate the space.

"This space enables some [my] hoarding tendencies, but I try to be as decorative with it as possible," Dahl says. "While most of the stuff is technically trash, and a lot of it was free, I try to curate it in the way that is most comfy to me."

Although Dahl loves the space he created, which also includes a songwriting and organ station, he says he only lives there because it's what he can afford right now, but he hopes to move out and have it continue to be a collaborative studio space.

"It'll just be an open store for whoever wants to come in and learn to paint or continue a painting or learn to record a song or continue a song. It's for beginners and people who are already passionate about what they do," Dahl says.

"Living in a storefront has taught me resourcefulness in a way I've never known before. I really can't be too picky about what comes my way; I just have to make the best of it. And that's the greatest skill I could ask for, he added.

"It's nothing I could teach myself; it's something you can only learn from life. That's really in line with the life philosophy I have."

Hipster tinderbox

the only regulations that are being enforced for this hazardous shithole is no shoes or socks allowed inside. This cheapskate hipster won't even buy a dresser for his raggy clothes. He also seems to be renting it out too for lodging and entertainment, which technically makes this a commercial space. This is a smaller version of that hipster commune building that went up in flames and killed dozens in California. This hipster's lucky the Buildings Commissioner is a mess

Knock and leave a citation three times

 Since when does DOB go back a third time? Glad they did, though.

 

de Blasio NYPD floods the flood zones in pursuit of basement landlords

 

Gothamist

Police officials are investigating the six incidents in which basement apartment dwellers lost their lives during last Wednesday's storm, opening up the potential for criminal charges against homeowners who may have created dangerous conditions for their tenants.

Of the 13 people who were found dead in New York City, 11 were trapped in a flooded basement, and the Department of Buildings has said that five of the six of these were illegally converted basement or cellar units.

Multiple agency investigations into building-related deaths are not unusual. Following its investigation, the NYPD may elect to refer the case to the Queens or Brooklyn District Attorney's office. Five of the homes where people died were located in Queens, while one was in Brooklyn. The one basement apartment which was a legal unit was located on Grand Central Parkway in Queens.

During his morning press briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio was vague about what kinds of punishment homeowners who rented their basements illegally might face.

 "We are going to hold people accountable, but not in a way that punishes the tenants," he said.

The mayor called regulating illegal basement apartments a "Herculean task." Across many neighborhoods, such units offer an affordable housing option to low-income New Yorkers, especially immigrants, while also helping some middle-class landlords pay their mortgage.

In 2019, the city launched a pilot program to legalize such units by providing low or no-interest loans to homeowners seeking to bring the apartments up to code. But the mayor recently called the effort a failure, since it failed to solicit much interest.

"I could tell you that we've got some miraculous plan to solve the illegal basement problem overnight. We don't," de Blasio said. "It is a massive structural problem in the city. It has been for decades. We don't have an immediate solution to this one."

By definition, a basement is a unit that has at least one-half of its height above the curb level, while a cellar has more than one-half of its height below the curb.

The city estimates there are at least 50,000 basement units, housing more than 100,000 residents. But one tenant advocacy group, NYC Base Campaign, has counted more than 312,000 such units across the city.

 

 

Deadly fire caused by e-bike battery charger

Illegal conversion of a basement garage + Charging an e-bike battery = death trap. And it was the family's first day living in the house.

Rest in peace, Remi

From NBC:

A 9-year-old boy has died following a building fire in Queens early Wednesday.

The flames broke out around 2 a.m. in a three-story building on 102nd Road near Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park. Ten other people were rescued from the structure with minor injuries and the young boy was the only fatality, the FDNY said.

The boy has been identified as Remi Miguel Gomez Hernandez, police said.

It's unclear how the fire started but officials say it possibly began in the building's basement.

When you see something like this after a fire, it means the FDNY found something disturbing:

I'm sure BdB will do something about this as soon as he gets off the Times Square Ferris Wheel.

Congregate Entrepreneur Shelter

pic.twitter.com/I884nNV9fp

— Current American Citizen (@CurrentCitizen) July 8, 2021

Tenant finds mystery apartment through her bathroom mirror

WHAT THE ENTIRE FUCK pic.twitter.com/J4UdHAWCIz

— Great Value Sade (@CheyMillz) March 4, 2021

In the second video, she found a hole behind her bathroom mirror leading to another room, which she compared to the secret room in the film Parasite. In the third video, she decided to go through the hole and explore this other room with a hammer in hand. And in the final video, she discovered trash bags filled with stuff and a bottle of Core drinking water inside the area, along with what appeared to be a lot of broken plywood and a toilet. “Made it out alive,” she declared at the end, after exiting her mirror. “My landlord’s getting a really fun phone call tomorrow.” We've reached out to Hartsoe to see what her landlord told her about the extra room inside her bathroom mirror, but assuming this building wasn't created by a Being John Malkovich superfan, there seems to be a logical explanation for it: as one person wrote on Twitter, "This is a refurbished project. Maintenance guys used to not want to stand in the hallway if the tenant wasn't there, so they had entrances thru the bathroom mirror. Candyman was inspired by a guy in Chicago who was getting in those and sexually assaulting women."

Flushing fire kills 2 at house with history of problems

From CBS 2:

Two people were killed in an overnight house fire in Queens.

Authorities have confirmed the victims were a father and his young son whose twin brother survived.

As CBS2’s John Dias reports, the Flushing home was destroyed in the fire.

Police confirmed a 6-year-old boy died in the fire, along with a 65-year-old man. Neighbors told Dias it’s a father and his son.

Cellphone video shows flames shooting out of the home at 45-54 157th Street in Flushing, Queens.

It all happened just after 1 a.m

So unbelievably tragic. What could have happened?

Nothing to see here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Update

NY Daily News

The home was in the middle of various repairs, with blue tarps covering part of the building. It’s not clear if the renovations played a role in the blaze, but last February a contractor linked to the home settled a case with the city, apparently paying a fine after being cited for an unstable shed constructed in the driveway.

Department of Buildings records said the shed and backyard were filled with household debris and tools scattered about.

 

The worst little hostel in Kew Gardens

Forest Hills Post

A quiet Kew Gardens home was illegally converted into a dormitory-style, transient hotel with as many as four bunk beds to a room over the summer — and the law-breaking homeowner was slapped with more than $100,000 in violations.

The two-family home, located at 121-08 84th Ave., was converted to a six-family home with three units on the first floor and three more in the attic level, according to Department of Buildings (DOB) summons.

The homeowner, Edward J. Erhard IV, was issued with 12 summonses and fined $108,500 for the violations. At a hearing in late January, a judge upheld the charges — which include illegal conversion of occupancy and illegal construction without permits — and ordered Erhard to pay the large sum.

Complaints of the illegal hotel operation date back to July 2018 with neighbors stating as many as 16 to 18 people were staying at the two-family house, according to DOB records.
Rooms within the house, which sits on a residential tree-lined block, were advertised on Facebook, according to the complaints.

When an inspector was finally able to enter the building on July 11, 2019 with the help of law enforcement, he found several long-term and transient renters sharing rooms within the house — with as many as three people to a room, according to hearing testimony.

The inspector met two women who were paying $40 a night for a one-night stay — one was sharing a room with a long-term tenant, while the other was staying on the living room couch.

Councilman Reynoso bill proposal raises fines on home illegal conversions and loft studios

Crains New York

Councilman Antonio Reynoso isn't interested in preaching to the converted. 

The Brooklyn lawmaker will introduce a bill next week that will jack up penalties on landlords who allow their buildings to be used for purposes contrary to their approved occupancy and zoning—a proposal aimed at illegal renovation of manufacturing buildings to loft residences and houses to multifamily residences. The legislation comes just months after the state Legislature voted to allow factory and warehouse buildings in swaths of Lower Manhattan, North Brooklyn and Western 
Queens inhabited continuously through 2015 and 2016 to become lawful dwellings under the 37-year-old Loft Law.

Critics complain that Albany's repeated expansions of the 1982 statute have tacitly encouraged people to illegally convert industrial spaces to residences, by signaling to them that the state will intervene to protect their homes. Reynoso himself raised fears that this has also contributed to the erosion of blue-collar jobs and businesses.
 

"Landlords are currently exploiting the weak protections in place for manufacturing spaces and see the low penalties for converting them to residential as the cost of doing business," the councilman said in a statement sent to Crain's. "We must ensure that protections are in place to preserve our manufacturing spaces and the workers who depend on them."

At present, the city fine for "immediately hazardous violations" is set at $1,000 to $25,000. Reynoso's bill would establish a new minimum penalty of $10,000.

And you thought Queens was bad...

From NBC:

There is a new battle over illegal housing in Rockland County and the mounting pressure by a special task force and hearings ordered by a state senator. The I-Team's Sarah Wallace.

Bill would legalize basement units citywide

From PIX11:

City Council Member Brad Lander says he wants to make sure long-time residents like Thorne can stay in the community, while also providing affordable housing. It's why he's proposed a bill to help homeowners bring illegal basement units up to code.

"We just have been playing a sort of don't ask, don't tell game and that's not good for anybody," said Lander.

Under his proposal, homeowners would receive low interest, subsidized, or forgivable loans depending on their income level. That money would be used transform basements into legal apartments with the help of the Department of Buildings.

In exchange, current or future tenants will receive leases with renewal clauses and affordable rent increases.

"If the house is in proper standard with the basement and pass all it's examination it could be done," said Thorne. "If it fails, it should be out."

If the pilot program is approved it will roll out in East New York sometime next year. If it's successful, it will likely roll out to the rest of the city shortly after.

Auburndale cellar becomes murder site

From CBS 2:

Police said they were called to a home on Ashby Avenue in the Auburndale neighborhood shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Sources told CBS2 the woman lived in the basement unit with five children, all under the age of 10. She was the only adult home at the time, sources said.

Police said officers found the little girl, identified as 1-year-old Elaina Torabi, unconscious and unresponsive and rushed her to Flushing Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Her brother was taken to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in critical condition.

The Administration for Children’s Services removed three other girls, ages 2, 4, and 5, from the home, unharmed. Sources told CBS2 there was no ACS history at the house.

East New York to be a basement conversion "guinea pig"

From CBS 2:

“We’ll use East New York as the guinea pig of how this program can work and whether or not it will work,” said Councilman Rafael Espinal, who sponsored the pilot program. “If we’re able to create a successful program, then the hope is that we'll expand it citywide.”

The councilman said in East New York, 75 percent of basement apartments are being rented illegally, which he said is dangerous. So the pilot program will offer homeowners low-interest loans to renovate apartments to make sure they are safe.

Espinal told Kramer he worked with the FDNY and Department of Buildings to develop standards, making sure the apartments have sprinklers, adequate exits, windows and ventilation.

“There’s concerns about, for example, the fact that we have boilers and furnaces in the basement. The bill will allow for homeowners to wall-off those furnaces,” he said.

I'm sure East New York enjoys being referred to as a "guinea pig". Seriously, what elected official talks like this about a neighborhood, and to a reporter no less? And what 2-family homeowner is going to take out a loan to install sprinklers when they can just continue renting out their basements illegally for tax-free $$$ the way 75% of their neighbors do?

Did we land in Oz?

Landlord sued over illegal converting apartments into AirBnB rentals

From AMNY:

An “unscrupulous” Airbnb host is being sued by the city after he allegedly converted four apartments into illegal hotel listings that misled renters, placing them in hazardous living conditions, according to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE).

The lawsuit was brought against David Schuchter De Oliveira by OSE on behalf of 10 unnamed plaintiffs who detailed horror stories of being duped into staying in illegally converted apartments in Manhattan, sometimes with dozens of other guests at the same time. Schuchter De Oliveira rents, but does not own the apartments, three of which are located in rent-stabilized buildings, per a city spokeswoman.

One plaintiff, David, said he was led to believe he was renting a room in a young couple’s guest bedroom with quality amenities and access to a shared living space, bathroom and kitchen.

“I first sensed something dubious about the host/listing when the key pick-up instructions sent me on a clandestine mission, several blocks from the apartment, to pick up keys from inside a small lockbox attached to a public telephone booth,” he said, adding that he realized it was an illegal Airbnb as soon as he walked into the apartment.

David said the two-bedroom unit had been converted into a hostel-like hotel with five bedrooms, each with their own lock, one bathroom and no common areas.

“Each bedroom was furnished to sleep up to six people, except for the kitchen which had been converted into a bedroom with a single bed,” he added.

Drunk driver crashes into house, reveals illegal conversion

From NBC:

Witnesses said the driver, a 29-year-old woman identified by police as Shanna Shaw, got out of the vehicle wearing only her underwear. She seemed disoriented and under the influence.

"She was just screaming, just screaming," said A.J. "No words at all."

Police said the woman tried to leave the scene but was arrested. All of the injured are expected to survive.

But there are even more victims: A.J. and his family may have lost their home, since it's been deemed no longer safe to live in.

"We have to move or vacate the apartment until further notice," he said. "It takes a toll on everybody, but you gotta live through it, I guess."

A.J. and his family are staying with friends for now. The driver, Shaw, has been charged with driving while imparied and with two counts of fleeing the scene of an accident.

Attorney information for Shaw was not immediately clear.

Messages left for the building landlord were not immediately returned. The Department of Buildings said during investigation at the crash scene, they learned the home had been illegally converted and didn't have adequate egress. As a result, a partial vacate order was issued for the first floor and garage.

DOB verifies that Elmhurst death house was illegally subdivided

From the Daily News:

The Queens building where a man was found dead in the attic — a day after the fire was put out — was illegally subdivided, according to the Buildings Department.

There was an apartment illegally created in the basement, and multiple Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units illegally added on the first floor of 40-46 Case St. in Elmhurst, inspectors said.

The Buildings Department has ordered the property owner to board up the vacated fire-damaged building. The owner has also been hit with multiple violations for the illegal conversions.

On Sunday, a city lawmaker who represents the area demanded a full investigation and for stricter penalties for similar illegally converted houses.

"Similar illegal conversions are common practice in Corona and Elmhurst," said Councilman Francisco Moya.

The home in Jackson Heights that caught fire also has a history of being an SRO.

Elmhurst fire is an old familiar story

From the Daily News:

A roaring fire erupted in a Queens home early Friday injuring seven firefighters and five civilians, including one who suffered life-threatening injuries, FDNY officials said.

The blaze broke out on the second floor of a two-story house on Case St. near Whitney Ave. in Corona around 5:10 a.m., according to authorities.

Four civilians were taken to local hospitals in serious condition. A fifth civilian was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital in critical condition.

The seven injured firefighters were taken to New York-Presbyterian Queens. Their conditions were being evaluated, an FDNY spokesman said.

In 1992, a rooming house was discovered there. It was allegedly "cured".