Mayor Eric Adams imposes new fire safety rules in New York City
NEW YORK -- More than two months after the tragic Bronx high-rise fire that killed more than two dozen people, Mayor Eric Adams has signed an executive order that creates new fire safety rules in the city.
As CBS2's Lisa Rozner reported Sunday, officials are now keeping tabs on every building.
Memorial flowers have wilted and windows of empty apartments are boarded. Life will never be the same at Twin Parks North West, where 17 people died on Jan. 9 from a fire.
At a nearby mosque, imam Musa Kabba said many surviving tenants are distraught and have moved away.
"It's our family, our sons and our daughters. We cannot be able to forget that," Kabba said.
On Sunday, Mayor Adams made permanent changes via an executive order that he says will help every building avoid an unspeakable tragedy.
It will increase coordination between inspectors from the FDNY and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
That includes checking that the fire safety notice is posted on every apartment's entrance door. The notice provides life-saving information on what to do in the event of a fire. HPD will provide the FDNY with access to all fire safety-related violations since Jan. 1, 2021. FDNY will use that information to inspect buildings with a large number of violations.
"It's better to know your right when you are living like that," Kabba said.
The city will also ramp up educational outreach on fire safety, including in schools, which Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson had requested.
"We can also educate them on what to do in the event of a fire in terms of fire escape, sprinkler system, fire alarms, and making sure that there are systems in place to prevent any fire from happening," Gibson said.
"It's very good. It's a good idea," 18th floor resident Yunusa Trawally said.
Next, the mayor is working with the City Council on what he calls sensible retrofit sprinkler legislation. Sprinklers were only required in New York City buildings starting in the 1990s, says Glenn Corbett, professor of fire science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
"It's probably he's proposing a retrofit of a partial sprinkler system, which is certainly better than not having a system at all, but probably would only include like the public areas, and maybe a sprinkler head inside of each door, in each apartment," Corbett said. "It's certainly an essential piece of basic piece of fire protection equipment."
The mayor is also calling on the council to approve increased fines for landlords who falsely report that they fixed violations, like self-closing doors.
