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Photograph of 401 West 18th Street in Manhattan, where a fatal fire claimed five lives, by David Karp/AP
Fire officials say that the smoke detector in a 6th floor Chelsea apartment that claimed five lives yesterday morning had been unplugged. The Daily News reports that the "smoke detector did not go off. The battery had been removed and the wires disconnected."
A family of six had been living in the apartment: Parents with three daughters--ages 8, 3, and 15 months--and a 10-year-old son. The parents and daughters all died, as they tried to escape the fire, which started in the kitchen. According to the NY Post, mother Delkis Balbuena was found "lying in a bathtub full of water, her 8-year-old daughter, Nanny, lying beneath her" with 3-year-old Bet-El under the bathroom sink in the bathroom, while father Maschay Valdez was "slumped at the base of the kids' bunk beds next to a window. Beside him lay 15-month-old Ruth and the lone survivor, Jonzan, 10, who was barely hanging on."
The Post has a diagram of the apartment--the kitchen was next to the front door, making escape difficult. Deputy Fire Chief James Daly said they "definitely [were] trying to make their way out, but the only door was blocked by fire." A neighbor told the NY Times, “I started banging on the apartment door, 6A. I didn’t hear no noise from inside. The smoke was coming around the door, and black soot was coming out from beneath the door.” Firefighters described the smoke as being thick and acrid, like "black ink." And one witness who saw the FDNY taking bodies out, “The last fireman after the last body came out, he went on his knees and prayed.”
The apartment is located in the Robert Fulton Houses, a NYC Housing Authority complex that is fireproof so the fire did not travel to other units. The smoke detector was inspected and found in working order in April but Daly said it "was not operational, so obviously that played a big part... Every second counts in a fire.” And Jonzan Valdez is currently in a hyperbaric chamber at Jacobi Medical Center, clinging to life.
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I've been arguing with plumbers about where to hook up my stove because they want to put it close to the door to my kitchen, making it impossible to get to the door without passing next to the stove -- my reasoning is that if ever a fire should happen on the stove, it might block the way to the door, and all I have is a sixth floor window with no fire escape in the kitchen.
So, that leads me to wonder if it's legal at all to place a kitchen right by the front door, particularly if there's no other way out of an apartment!
Is that code-conforming? Surely not?
I feel for that family. This is terrible.
this happened to me too but I disabled my own smoke detector cause the 9 volt battery went dead and the wired system makes this awful chirping sound to remind you to replace the 9 volt battery. After you replace the 9 volt battery then you have to reset the alarm so the chirping sound will turn off. I waited 2 months to replace that smoke alarm battery. I bet this happened to this family, smoke alarm battery died and it went all chirpy and they disabled it but the chirping sound was still there and then they disconnected the wires from it, unfortunately they had a fire.
[1] If you're that worried about a grease fire, you really should get a small fire extinguisher for the kitchen. They're quite inexpensive.
[3] So you have a few hundred grand in the bank, apartments in several ritzy neighborhoods and time to ride up and down Manhattan every day on your bicycle, but you couldn't spare the time or money to stick a new 9V battery in your smoke alarm?
It's Bush's fault. He should provide each and every family in America with a fresh 9 volt battery.
actually the fire dept foundation handed out free batteries at this location and will probably be handing them out citywide as a reminder with daylight savings.
The fireman and ems does so much for this city.
The FDNY is the only organization in this city that actually functions as one would hope the others would. You can get free batteries at your local firehouse twice a year. Usually in the spring when the clocks are moved forward and also during fire prevention week which is about over. Check there and I am sure they have some left over.
They use to give out free smoke detectors but I'm not sure if they still do. I would hate to see Babyhitler get wiped out for lack of a battery or a faulty smoke detector.
i don't have a battery right now on mine... and yes, I can afford a 9v battery. Fortunately I still have 2 fire exits on my windows...
RIP
I live 3 blocks and one ave from this place. I rode my bike down there its odd that you cant tell there has been a fire. It was really contained in the apt.
Where u can see the fire truck in that picture the building right behind it had a party only 12 hours after the deaths of those people. playing bachata and reggaton so loud that you could hear the music so loud probably in there apartment. Its so sad how no one even really cared. There were flowers and candles but that was it.
I think they keep pointing out the fire alarm like that was the save all solution and reponsiblity. I think its abuse being these are projects and low rise buildings that didnt have fire escapes. Thats just crap they dont have because there projects.
I actually bought a 9v battery but the battery was dead when I replaced it. The other thing is that once you replace the battery some smoke detectors like mine require that you hold down the button for a couple seconds to test and reset it or else it just starts chirping again. It's kinda complicated if you don't read the fine print on the instructions. But don't worry guys, I bought me 3 more smoke detectors and fresh batteries, and a extinguisher and will make it through this. It's gonna suck when they all start dying and chirping though. That sound is so fucking annoying. I don't even cook, cause I go out to eat everyday and night but you gots to play it safe.
That's great news Babyhitler. It's better they start chirping when they are dying rather than you.