Quincy building commissioner: Illegal basement apartment needed sprinklers
(George Rizer/Globe Staff)
By Michael Levenson, Brian R. Ballou, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
QUINCY -- The apartment where a father and his two children died in an early morning fire was illegally built in the basement and should have had sprinklers, according to the city building commissioner.
PHOTO GALLERY  Scenes from the fire |
Quincy inspectors had been preparing to search the Robertson Street building this Friday after a city health department inspector, acting on a complaint about insufficient heat, visited on March 10 and discovered an illegal apartment in the attic. The white 2-1/2 story building, constructed in 1927, was only permitted to house four apartments, but additional units had been built in the attic and basement, according to Quincy Building Commissioner Jay Duca.
"As far as we knew, it was an existing four-family that was grandfathered" under a state building code that allowed some four-unit buildings to go without sprinklers, Duca said. "Had we been aware of the additional two units, we would have required it to have a sprinkler system."
The owners of the building, Jinny Xiu Ma and Andy Huang, would not discuss the fire when reached today by phone.
"I'm not going to talk about it," Huang said.
State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan said at an afternoon press conference that the basement apartment also lacked a working smoke detector. The building did have hardwired smoke detectors in the hallways and stairwells, but the system had been turned off, Coan said.
Investigators have not yet determined what sparked the blaze, but they know that it ignited on a couch in the basement at 3 a.m. and filled the apartment with thick, toxic smoke, Coan said. Neighbors pounded on the basement door as smoke and flames filled the home of a family with a toddler and an infant.
"I know they have a baby," said Mostafa Oubtrou, an upstairs neighbor, mimicking how he banged on the door. "So I say, 'Open! Open! Open!' "
But the door did not budge until Quincy firefighters broke it down. The two-alarm fire killed the two children and their father, according to fire officials and neighbors. Firefighters rescued the mother from the flames at 100 Robertson St. and rushed her to the burn trauma unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"We were able to get her," said Quincy Deputy Fire Chief Gary Smyth. "That's all I'm going to say at this point."
Upstairs neighbor Mohammed Rhemmes said he saw a firefighter emerge from the basement apartment with a blue-faced 1-year-old cradled in his arms. They brought the father out on a stretcher, his body wrapped in a black cover.
"It's terrible what happened to them," said Rhemmes, who said he helped authorities tentatively identify the victims in photographs taken of the bodies inside the apartment. "I feel so sad for the family."
None of the names of the victims have been released. Fire officials have not yet confirmed whether or not the man and the woman were the children's parents.
Neighbors, however, described them as a married couple with a 1-year-old and a 2-month-old. They said the father was an Iraqi immigrant in his 40s who worked at a gas station. He had lived in the building for five to seven years and had recently moved to the basement apartment because there was more room for his family. The mother was described by neighbors as an American-born woman in her 20s.
Some of the apartments in the building had battery-operated smoke detectors, according to Coan. At least three other families living in the six-unit building told the Globe that the smoke alarms in their apartments did not work. One resident, Mark Pierce, said that his smoke detector sounded and woke up him and his wife, Lauren.
The city health inspector who discovered the illegal attic apartment also noticed that there were no working smoke detectors in that unit, according to Duca, the building commissioner. After the March 10 visit to the building, the health inspector sent a letter to the city building department, which scheduled an inspection on Friday by Quincy's illegal dwelling task force.
Rhemmes, the upstairs neighbor, was another resident who said the smoke detector in his unit did not work.
"If there was a fire alarm, this wouldn't have happen," Rhemmes said today. "So now we don't have a house. Everything is broken. There's smoke everywhere. It's a mess."
Firefighters responded to find the one-bedroom apartment engulfed in flames. The blaze was largely confined to the basement of the building at the corner of Connell Street, just south of where Adams Street crosses the Southeastern Expressway.
"It's a sad day for the neighborhood, a sad day for the community, and a sad for the state," Coan said.
The Red Cross was providing assistance to 13 people from five families displaced by the fire, including four children, the youngest of whom is 10 months old.
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As usual land lords cutting corners and putting people life at risk.
Half of Quincy is set-up like this, they'd better start cracking down or this will probably happen again.
That's so sad, now the landlords should be held responsible and should go to jail.
If the landlords dont serve time for at least manslaughter its a shame.
I have no doubt the landlord(s) knew that the apartment was illegal. They should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Unfortunately for this young family, it sounds like another case of inspectors saying, I should of, I could of, I would of. . .
Time to end the grandfather clause regarding fire safety. Three people, including two babies (!) may have lost their lives because town officials always cave to landlords. I have sprinklers and smoke detectors in every room in my condo, and my building is ancient. Shame on the landlord - including the non-working smoke detector in the attic apt. What does a battery cost, a dollar? Now three people are dead because of a cheapskate landlord and a town that sucks up to property owners.
I hope they sue the owners as it was all about the money here in trying to squeeze more apartments in.
I feel bad for the loss of that family. What a sad story.
Also whats up with the three week lag time for the Quincy illegal dwelling task force? The health inspector should have these powers and imposed a steep fine from day it was discovered.
Moral of the story:
it might be prudent to install your own fire alarms&CO detectors that are under your own control in addition to those supplied by your landlord.
either that or : "stuff happens".
Welcome to Massachusetts home of REacctionaries instead of PRO actionaries. Three people are dead and now we determine it was an illegal apartment. Might have been better to know before 3 people perished. So much for the psturing over public safety!
"Rhemmes, the upstairs neighbor, was another resident who said the smoke detector in his unit did not work."
Yet he didn't think to take the situation in hand. This is another classic case of someone relying on another person to take care of a situation that has life-and-death consequences when it would be safest to take control of the situation oneself and *buy* a smoke detector that works AND that you yourself can test the functioning of without having the fire department respond.
This is a separate issue from whether it is the landlord's responsibility to have a working alarm in the space--it's the issue of whether you are thinking about risk to you and taking responsibility to protect your own life.
Correct me if I am wrong, but not to long ago a Chinese family was found to be running an illegal hotel out of their house in N. Quincy. And then here is 2 Chinese people adding illegal apartments for people to live and die in. Ask me they should be held criminally responsible and jailed for this.
Why is it not a law in Massachusetts that landlords have to post occupancy permits in their apartment buildings much like you need one for an elevator, or to sell food?
It is such a shame. We can only pray for the mother and the deceased father and the children. On a related note. Now that Quincy has so many new immigrants moving in I don't feel Jay Duca and the rest of the building Dept is doing a good job at all policing these dwellings. I can't count the number of over-filled houses that exist in Quincy. They all violate the law limiting the number of differently named adults living under one roof. The Vietnamese stuff so many families under one roof. They work hard but, mostly under the table, thus avoiding paying income tax.. They also only pay one realestate tax .
Please tell me this is not going to be another one of these BDC immigrant sympathy parties.....
Why should the landlords be blamed for the smoke detectors? Yes, they put in and should maintain them. But If i lived in that apartment with my family I would make sure the smoke detectors worked!
i
GEE, I NOTICE THAT THEY ARE ALL IMMIGRANTS! THATS A SHOCKER! NOW THEY WILL SUE THE LANDLORD, THE CITY, THE STATE, AND THERE WILL BE NO LACK OF LAWYERS LINED UP TO REPRESENT THEM
Let me guess-the owners live in public housing in Boston and collect welfare checks. I worked in the Asian community in Boston for years. There were lots of families who owned homes (many in Quincy and Revere), but would rent them out, while they lived in public housing rent-free. These landlords should go to jail for manslaughter or second degree murder, but they won't. It will be dismissed as a 'cultural' misunderstanding. Amazing how they don't speak English or know the laws here, but somehow they figure out how to get a $500,000 mortgage with no down payment and turn around and exploit poor people who need affordable housing.
Another reason the close the borders!
Can you all just hop on a plane and go back where you came from ?
We just can't afford you and your antics anymore.
What's with Steve trying to twist this to somehow being the tenant's fault? Let's not forget two BABIES died. These landlords, no, let me rephrase, slumlords, ought to be locked up. And may they spend every day for the rest of their lives being haunted by the ghosts of those dead babies. And before someone says "well, I'd never live in an illegal apt..." just remember, when you need to keep a roof over your head and food in the mouths of your children, you take what you can get.
let's see the blame game begins tomorrow morning at quincy city hall, all hands on deck to clamp down on illegal apartments in quincy for the next 2 months. Then it will be back to same old same old again
Unless you are Native American, otherwise we should all leave this land...let's focus on the problems and don't be stereotype. We have to work together to educate landlords and tighten our laws.
"What's with Steve trying to twist this to somehow being the tenant's fault? Let's not forget two BABIES died. These landlords, no, let me rephrase, slumlords, ought to be locked up."
Hi, I'm Steve.
I don't think it was the tenant's sole "fault," as clearly there were safety violations and zoning violations that are the responsibility of both the property owner and the city of Quincy.
What I was pointing out was that, so often, people don't think to be proactive and protect themselves. If you know there isn't a working smoke detector, go guy one, because it's your life. Whether the landlord gets a judgement against him in a criminal suit won't bring you and your loved ones back.
The woman in the fire is my cousin. I feel like the landlords should pay for what they have done to our family!
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
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