Brownsville tenants say landlord is neglecting fire-damaged building
NEW YORK - Photos taken from an apartment ravaged by an Aug. 10 fire at 70 Rockaway Ave. show debris, burned belongings and holes in the walls.
"You could smell smoke. When I went up there, the tip of my tongue was tingling," recalls tenant AnnMarie Stewart.
The fourth-floor apartment is now locked, a vacate order prevents the family from coming back home.
FDNY says the cause was determined to be accidental, sparked by faulty electric wiring.
Residents remember smoke alarms in multiple units going off several times in the weeks before.
"Maybe there was little sparks going on creating some smoke that maybe the detectors were, you know, detecting," says resident Valencia Mondesir. "The landlord, the super, nobody took us seriously."
A few doors away on the fourth floor, a neighbor showed CBS New York two huge holes in the ceiling, as insulation fell onto the kitchen stove. Water stains decorate the bedroom.
In Stewart's apartment below, she points out rodent poop on the windowsill and damage to the walls.
"If I call the office, some of them hang the phone up on me," she tells CBS New York's Hannah Kliger.
CBS New York reached out to the owner, Solomon Landau, and Icon Management Group LLC several times. We have not heard back.
A spokesperson from the department of Housing Preservation and Development says in a statement:
"Safety and security for New Yorkers is our top priority and whenever disaster strikes, we step in to help those in need. In the aftermath of the fire, HPD inspected the building to ensure conditions were safe for residents return. We issued violations for any hazardous conditions we found and issued a vacate order for the apartment where the fire started. The owner is responsible for addressing any fire damage or unsafe conditions that existed before the fire. HPD will continue monitor repairs. "
Tenants say conditions there were a problem even before the fire started. Several weeks ago, they signed a petition demanding that the landlord make necessary repairs.
Stewart, who has been living there for three years, is involved in pending litigation with the landlord.
On the first floor, in Mondesir's unit, a sticky trap full of dead roaches sits on her kitchen table. Nearby, an electric burner cooks dinner because there is no gas.
"We have a business relationship. And I think it is fair that the landlord can meet up with us and hear our concerns," she says.
HPD records show that the rent-regulated building has 77 open violations, 39 of which have been reported since the fire. There are also five overdue lead paint violations from the past 10 days.
In 2019, Landau made the Public Advocate's annual Worst Landlords list.
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