From The Charred Remains Of A Newkirk Avenue Apartment, Neighbors Said They Have Pleaded With Landlord For Years To Fix Building’s Electrical Problems
Standing in the room that, just hours ago, was his kitchen, Ovando Darty looked around his apartment, his eyes moving from the piles of shattered glass littering the floor to the charred dining room table perched beneath a framed replica of Leonard da Vinci’s The Last Supper, closing his eyes after his gaze traveled to the hallway that led to his children’s room.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Darty said early Thursday afternoon, not long after a fire broke out at his home in an apartment building at 2010 Newkirk Avenue, between Ocean Avenue and E. 21st Street, where he lives with his three young children, ages 5, 7 and 8. “I don’t. What do you do?”
It took about 106 firefighters to extinguish the blaze that completely destroyed Darty’s apartment and damaged two other units. The FDNY has said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but Darty, others living at the Newkirk Avenue site, and Flatbush Tenant Coalition organizer Aga Trojniak noted that residents have long complained about electrical problems in this building — which Public Advocate Letitia James in October named as one of the most mismanaged buildings in all of New York City.
“This is crazy — tenants have been saying for years this building is going to burn,” Trojniak said. “This has to end — the city has to start taking repairs seriously.”
Darty himself said he had, months ago, notified both his building’s manager and the landlord, Moshe Piller, who the public advocate has placed on her “Worst Landlords Watchlist,” that his walls had been “feeling hot” and there were exposed wires in his apartment.
On February 24, the city’s Housing Preservation and Development recorded a violation for an “unsafe electric wiring condition consisting of exposed electrical wires” in Darty’s apartment.
“I called them many, many times, said they needed to fix it,” Darty said of his building’s manager and landlord. “I told them, ‘Listen, I don’t want my house to be on fire.'”
When we reached the building manager, Mike Ross, about the situation, he hung up on us, and a woman at MP Management, Piller’s company, told us she had no information and told us to call back tomorrow.
The city Department of Buildings’ website details a long history of complaints filed by tenants with the city about electrical problems, with complaints about faulty electrical wiring and exposed wires dating back to 2001. Many of the complaints filed with the city note that the power frequently goes out in the building, tenants have gone long periods of time without power because only the building’s management has access to the basement’s fusebox and the building has no live-in superintendent, and there are numerous exposed wires in the basement.
For most of the complaints, the DOB noted on its website that inspectors were unable to gain access after two tries, or that no violation was “warranted” after inspection.
The HPD too has a long list of violations in regards to electrical conditions at 2010 Newkirk, with the status of most of the violations being listed as “no access” — meaning inspectors never entered the problem apartments.
Beverly Durant, whose home is located one floor below Darty’s and was also damaged in the fire, said she has had numerous problems in her apartment, including her ceiling collapsing in both the kitchen and bathroom and the bathroom not having hot water.
“After the building is inspected, they’ll do patchwork that doesn’t really fix anything,” Durant said.
Altagrace Aime, who lives in the Newkirk building, echoed many of her neighbors sentiments.
“We’ve been complaining for a long time,” she said. “There’s exposed wiring in the basement. It’s been going on for years.”
It’s not only electrical problems that neighbors said they have suffered at 2010 Newkirk Avenue — there are a litany of complaints about the building, including black mold, rodent infestations, collapsed ceilings, and more.
After James toured the 2010 Newkirk Avenue building in October, she referred the issue to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, which is now conducting a criminal investigation of alleged fraud related to housing court cases involving the landlord bringing tenants to court, claiming they owed rent, the Flatbush Tenant Coalition informed us today.
Trojniak said immediate action needs to be taken against Piller.
“The building needs to be taken away from Moshe Piller — the city giving landlords one more chance time and again has to stop,” Trojniak wrote to us. “This city really has to start taking repairs seriously — tens of thousands of NYC families live in conditions that most people probably don’t even realize could exist in the United States, that people think only happen in other countries.
“People’s basic human rights are violated each and every day when NYC fails to take seriously mold, and electrical issues, and collapsing ceilings, and rats, and mice, and other horrible, dangerous living conditions,” she continued. “Basic, decent living conditions are not something that tens of thousands of families should have to fight the city for. The city should force landlords to make repairs, or take their buildings away from them.”
If you’d like to help the families impacted by today’s fire, you can call the Flatbush Tenant Coalition at 718-635-2623 about financial and clothes donations.
