Woodside fire victim to sue city
“Almost the whole side of his head is scarred, irritated and oozing,” said attorney Herb Subin of his client, Shafin Ahammed, injured in the November 7 Woodside fire that also claimed the lives of three men.
On Monday, December 21, Subin filed a notice of claim – a precursor to a lawsuit – against the City of New York and the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) “to recover damages for personal injuries, conscious pain and suffering; medical expenses, hospital expenses, physicians expenses, medical supplies, mental and emotional distress, loss of earnings, etc.”
“We will review the claim thoroughly,” said Elizabeth Thomas of the New York City Law Department. “The recent fire was tragic and appears to be an unfortunate example of the risks of illegal building conversions.”
The early-morning blaze inside the two-story Woodside home, at 42-40 65th Street – which had been turned into a five-family dwelling with an additional seven rooms – claimed the lives of three Bangladeshi immigrants, Sd Jahan, 31; Abdul Kuddus, 24 and Biswajzit Das, 25, when their escape route from the basement was reportedly blocked by construction materials.
The home’s owner, Subir Barua, 48, suffered severe burns and was in critical condition. Other men, including Ahammed, were also burned.
Ahammed, a clerk at General Nutrition Centers (GNC) with no personal health insurance, was just recently released from the Weill-Cornell burn unit after 18 days, said his lawyer.
Subin estimates his client’s medical bills to be at least $50,000.
Firefighters responding to the scene were delayed to the scene when a 9-1-1 dispatcher mistakenly entered the wrong address, meaning they went to the wrong home, and the notice of claim reads, “negligent dispatching procedures; negligent in dispatching firefighter(s) to wrong address; in failing to timely respond to and in failing to timely extinguish a fire at the subject premises.”
“There’s no doubt the person keyed in the wrong address,” said Subin.
The notice also claims that the “building constituted a nuisance and a firetrap” and goes on to say that the DOB was “negligent in failing to properly inspect, maintain, operate, repair, control and supervise the subject premises . . . in failing to rectify violations of the Certificate of Occupancy or Fitness . . . “
Following the tragedy, the DOB issued three violations – for work without a permit, for illegal occupancy and for no secondary means of egress.
Tony Sclafani, DOB spokesperson, explained that in 1990 and 2004, the agency received two separate complaints for illegal conversions at the site.
Both times, he said, “Inspectors found no evidence,” and there had been no further complaints.
However, following the blaze, it was discovered that the top floor had been subdivided into two units – one with one bedroom, a second with two – and that the basement had four bedrooms.
Additionally, reports claim that there were not enough smoke detectors, and those in place were non-functional.
“Inspectors from the Buildings Department inspected the property in 1990 and 2004 and found no evidence of an illegal conversion at those times,” said Carly Sullivan, deputy press secretary, DOB. “Education is the key to preventing another tragedy from occurring, and since the fire, the Buildings and Fire Departments have joined together to launch a citywide campaign to educate New Yorkers about the dangers of an illegal conversion. By cutting corners and ignoring the law, property owners can put the lives of tenants, neighbors and first responders at risk.”
