The New York Daily News reported today that a Staten Island mother and her four children died in a three-alarm fire that tore through their apartment – which did not have a required smoke detector.
A neighbor of the stricken mother said her goal in life was to make sure her kids made it. ”She wanted them to succeed and she wanted them to have a better life than she had.”
So why didn’t she have smoke detectors in the apartment, which is mandated by law? Fire commissioner Salvatore Cassano said he tries to keep reminding people that the cheap little device saves lives.
The device is required to be provided by the building’s landlord. The landlord at the dead family’s apartment was said to be on vacation at the time of the fire.
Look for personal injury lawsuits to start flying and top New York personal injury lawyers to be going after the vacationing landlord.
Two police officers ran toward the burning building on Nicholas Ave. and kicked in doors to alert other residents, witnesses said.
More than a dozen people escaped the building, which consists of two attached residences that each house two families.
The cause of the inferno remains under investigation but it is not consider suspicious.
There have been two complaints filed against the building owner, according to the Department of Buildings.
In 2005, a report of an illegal conversion prompted a Buildings inspector to twice visit the building but the official could not access it either time, officials said.