Family of Maryland sisters killed in fire at NY rental home files lawsuit against property owners, rental website

BALTIMORE - The family of two Maryland sisters who died in a fire at a vacation rental last summer in the Hamptons filed a lawsuit against the owners of the property and rental website Homeaway.com.

The lawsuit claims the home in Sag Harbor, New York had "worthless carcasses of non-functioning alarms" despite an email from HomeAway, saying it had working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and a fire extinguisher, the New York Post reported.   

   Lawsuit filed by Maryland family against NY rental home by Adam Thompson on Scribd




  
    Click here to view related media.

    

      click to expand
      
    

  

  

The lawsuit says the rental home was misrepresented as safe.

Jillian and Lindsay Wiener, from Potomac, Maryland, were on vacation in the Long Island town with their brother Zachary, mother, Alisa, and father, Lewis, according to the Southampton Police Department.

At about 3:35 a.m. on Aug. 3, town authorities received a call about a fire at the home on Spring Lane. Fire departments from five different towns responded to the blaze.

Both Alisa and Lewis escaped. When they realized the children had not gotten out, Lewis attempted to re-enter the house but flames from a fire prevented him from doing so.

Zachary escaped by leaping out of a second-story window, but 21-year-old Jillian and 19-year-old Lindsay couldn't escape the fast-moving fire. 

Fire personnel found the girls inside the home. They were then taken to SUNY Southampton Hospital, where they died from their injuries, police said.

Jillian was headed to her senior year at the University of Michigan and Lindsay was set to return to Tulane University as a sophomore. 

"Defendants' greed, corner-cutting and willful failure to give any thought to the safety of the occupants of the premises led to the deaths of Jillian Rose Wiener and her sister Lindsay Eliza Wiener," the lawsuit states.