by Thomas Breen | Aug 6, 2019 4:01 pm

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Posted to: Housing, The Hill

The city began hearing that 150 West St. was an unauthorized rooming house over two years before a fire there killed two tenants, newly released documents reveal.

And it turns out that just three months before the deadly blaze, a city fire inspector and a city housing code inspector visited the building and discovered that it lacked functioning smoke detectors.

Those details are included in multiple inspection reports released by the fire marshal’s office to the New Haven Independent in response to a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request.

The reports reveal that the city knew about the unlicensed Hill rooming house much earlier than officials first said they did in the wake of a May 5 fire that killed two tenants, displaced 14 tenants, and injured four firefighters.

They also reveal that city inspectors had in fact visited the property just a few months before the fire, knew that it was still overcrowded, and knew that it did not have working smoke detectors. It’s unclear in information released to date how much, if at all, the city followed up on those concerns.

“Due to the fact that the investigation is still ongoing and involves the states attorney’s office,” Fire Chief John Alston told the Independent Tuesday afternoon, “We don’t want to comment on any of the elements in that investigation at this time.

“At the same time,” he continued, “we are conducting internal audits on all investigations and contact with 150 West St.”

In response to an earlier request in May for all Livable City Initiative (LCI) documents pertaining to 150 West, LCI top officials shared reports that bore no records of the department’s February 2019 housing code inspector visit alongside a fire inspector.

They spoke instead of the steep challenges of covering 25,000 eligible apartments citywide with just four housing code inspectors assigned to a residential licensing program that is currently being revamped. They said they rely on neighbors and tenants to tip off the city about illegal rooming houses.

The records that LCI did share with the Independent back in May showed that the building’s prior landlord had skipped multiple inspection appointments with the city; that a tenant had filed a complaint in January about having no heat, which was promptly restored the next day; and that LCI had followed up on a blight violation discovered during the Fall regarding automobiles parking on the property’s lawn. Those records offered no indication of any advance knowledge about problems with smoke detectors and with the establishmeng of an illegal rooming house.

The newly released fire marshal records tell a different story about the city’s engagement with the property.

They show that the fire marshal’s office and LCI first received complaints about the zoned two-family property being used as an illegal rooming house dating back to at least March 2017.

They show that the fire marshal’s office and LCI knew that the property was still being used as an illegal rooming house up through February 2019.

And they show that a fire inspector and a housing code inspector visited the property as recently as Feb. 11, 2019, and found there to be no functional smoke detectors.

After that visit, according to Fire Inspector Shakira Samuel’s report, the building’s landlord did promise to install working smoke detectors as early as Feb. 12.

A post-fire investigation report written on May 5 reveals that, three months later, the building was largely lacking in functional smoke detectors.

That finding confirms what multiple 150 West tenants, including Rontae Hunter, Hasson Hallet, Dershaya Hargrove, and Onix Ortiz, told the Independent in the hours and days after the fire: That they heard no smoke detectors ringing, but instead learned of the fire because of people banging on doors, shouting inside and outside the building, and jumping for their lives from upstairs windows.

There is still a possibility that there were a few functional smoke detectors in the building at the time of the fire, said city Fire Marshal Bobby Doyle, based on the findings of a the post-fire investigatory report as well as the landlord’s commitment to install new alarms on Feb. 12. But that will ultimately be determined by state investigators.

He said he has not spoken to any tenants or anyone else who has said that they remember hearing working smoke alarms going off at the time of the fire.

The files released to date by both the fire department and LCI include no record of follow-up action in response to the reported code violations. Inspector Samuel did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article as to whether or not she conducted a follow up inspection at the property after the landlord promised to install working smoke alarms.

Doyle said that the responsibility for following up on smoke alarm and unlicensed rooming house violations tends to be split between the Fire Department and LCI, as investigators from both are often involved in initial inspections, as was the case here. Sometimes the follow-up is done orally, sometimes in writing, depending on when and how the inspectors make contact with the landlord.

LCI Deputy Director Rafael Ramos said that he had never seen any fire inspector report about missing smoke detectors. He otherwise declined to comment for this story, noting that the city and the state are still investigating the source of the fire and the cause of the two fatalities.

“Smoke Alarms Were Missing”

The first marshal’s office’s three 150 West St. reports, all filed in the Fire Department’s internal FIREHOUSE records management system, were all written by Samuel. Click here to download an image file of those reports.

The first dates to March 23, 2017.

Categorized as under the report type CRES, for “Complaint 1 and 2 Family Dwelling,” Samuel’s report reads, “follow up on uniform complaint for eng[ine] 11 in regards to an illegal rooming house no answer left card in mailbox to return call. referral made to LCI and building department.”

Samuel’s next report came nearly two years later, on Feb. 7, 2019, according to the files provided to the Independent. This report is categorized as CFOUP, for “Complaint follow-up.”

“Follow up on complaint no answer left card,” Samuel wrote. “Call LCI inspection with Rick for 2/11.”

Samuel’s last report on 150 West was written four days later, after she and LCI Housing Code Inspector Rick Mazzadra toured the illegal rooming house together on Feb. 11. The report is categorized as CROOM, or “Complaint Rooming House.”

“Follow up on a complaint for a rooming house,” Samuel wrote. “Met Rick from LCI and entry was made. There was 4 rooms on the 1st floor, 3 rooms on the 2nd floor, and 3 rooms on the 3rd floor. The smoke alarms were missing on the 2nd and 3rd floor. There were no smoke alarms on the 1st floor. There was a gas powered motor scooter on the 1st floor hallway. Rick stated owner did not have a rooming license and they would only require people to vacate if more than 4 people lived on each floor.”

At 4:33 that afternoon, Samuel wrote, “owner called and stated he was replacing and adding smoke alarms to the home,” she continued. “Owner stated he would correct the violations 2/12. Inspector will re inspect.

“Abatement letter sent.”

That was the last report that the fire marshal’s office sent to the Independent in response to a request for all department reports regarding 150 West St. Doyle confirmed that Samuel did sent an abatement order to the landlord subsequent to her Feb. 11 inspection. Samuel did not respond to a request for comment on whether she conducted a follow up inspection after the landlord promised to install new smoke alarms on Feb. 12.

Onix Ortiz, a former tenant of 150 West who jumped with his wife from an upper story window to escape the flames, told the Independent in May that he remembered LCI’s Mazzadra coming back to the house in March and installing two smoke detectors in the kitchen. Ortiz said he didn’t hear those detectors go off at the time of the fire, though.

While Mazzadra’s statement as relayed by Samuel clearly identifies the landlord as not possessing a valid rooming house license for the property, the policy not to vacate unless more than four people lived on each floor echoes the zoning code’s definition of “Family,” or a group of people allowed to live in any one given housing unit, as inclusive of “a group of up to four people who need not be so related with up to an additional four people related to a person in the group by blood, marriage, adoption or legally recognized foster relationships.”

The city’s housing code is also ambiguous as to whether or not 150 West was illegally overcrowded per any other standard than not having a valid rooming house license and being a zoned two-family property. Par. 303 of the city’s housing code states that “every dwelling unit shall contain at least 150 square feet of floor area for the first occupant thereof and at least 100 additional square feet of floor area for every additional occupant thereof.” According to the city assessor’s database, 150 West has 2,410 square feet of living area. That means that 150 West’s 10 carved up units could have potentially had a legal amount of square footage to accommodate the 16 tenants, if the building had been zoned and licensed according to how it was actually being used.

Post-Fire Findings

The fire marshal’s office also provided the Independent with a report written by city Fire Investigator Jerry Rynich on May 5, the day of the lethal fire.

That report, written after Rynich and Fire Marshal Bobby Doyle interviewed tenants and toured and photographed the basement and all three floors of the burnt out building, did not identify a definitive reason for the fire. Click here to download the full report.

“This investigator,” Rynich wrote, “was unable to locate an ignition source or a positive first fuel ignited,” even though “the area of origin of the fire appears to be in the second-floor kitchen.”

Rynich does note in room-by-room detail, however, where there were smoke detectors and where there were not.

The two-and-half-story building, zoned for two families, was in fact carved into 10 separate apartments.

Rynich found seven empty smoke detector plates hanging from various room ceilings but with no smoke detectors inside; two smoke detectors that either had no batteries or were otherwise nonfunctional; and four smoke detectors that, despite some being painted over before the blaze, appeared to have been functional ... though no tenants reported hearing any smoke detectors blaring over the course of the fire.

In the basement, Rynich wrote, “A smoke detector plate was found mounted on the beams on the north side. No detector was found. Wiring was found dangling from the center of the wall mounted plate.”

He found a smoke detector on the ceiling in the first-floor rear interior hallway. “The battery door was found half open,” he wrote. “No batteries were found.”

In the first-floor main hallway, he found a mounting plate for a smoke detector. “The smoke detector was found to be missing.”

In the rear bedroom on the west side of the first floor, he wrote, “A single smoke detector was found within the room along the wall above the dresser. The smoke detector was found to be painted over around the base and the wall plate. Fire Marshal Doyle and this investigator removed the detector from the wall. No batteries were found inside the detector. The smoke detector was also found to be past its expiration date. No wiring was present.”

In the first-floor kitchen, he wrote, he found a smoke detector on the south side interior wall. “The detector was removed from the wall by this investigator. The detector was found to be non-operational. The label indicating a turn off alarm option was found punctured.”

In the center bedroom of the first floor, he found another mounting plate with no smoke detector.

In the first-floor living room, which had been converted into an apartment, he found two mounting plates, but no smoke detectors.

He found an apparently working smoke detector on the south side interior hallway of the first floor. “A single smoke detector was found on the south side interior hallway wall,” he wrote. “The detector appeared to be intact. The detector had sustained smoke and fire damage to the right corner, resulting in deformity. The battery cover to the detector was removed by this investigator. A single nine-volt battery was found inside the detector.”

On the second floor, he found an empty mounting plate inside the west side bedroom.

He found another potentially operational smoke detector on the second floor in the rear hallway. “Facing west and looking down the staircase leading to the rear exit of the property, a smoke detector was found on the ceiling. The detector was discolored and painted over in some sections.”

Up on the third floor, he found in the hallway “an item consistent with a fire damaged smoke detector was found in the hallway along the outside of the bathroom wall.”

In the middle bedroom of the third floor, he found a mounting plate with “charred wiring in place.”

And in the front bedroom on the third floor, he found “a smoke detector which had been heavily damaged by fire and smoke was found in place on the ceiling as well.”

Previous coverage:

• Violent Slumlord: “I’ll Break Your Fucking Camera”

• Tenants Return, Retrieve Burnt Belongings

• Slumlord Unloads 2 More Hill Properties

• Police Report: 150 West St. Landlord Assaulted Tenant Who Later Died In Fire

• Files Reveal Slumlord-Chasing Challenges

• Tenants Who Escaped Deadly Fire: Smoke Alarm Didn’t Sound. Slumlord Didn’t Care

• 2 Die In Hill Fire; Tenants Leap For Lives; Questions Raised On Smoke Alarms, Exits