House Fires

Chicago officials deny antiquated fire code caused woman’s death

January 17, 2012

Shantel McCoy, 32, was killed in a high-rise apartment fire early in the morning on January 8th. The Chicago woman died in the building’s elevator at approximately 2:00 a.m. while she was returning to her apartment after buying food.

Unaware of the blaze that raged on the 12th floor of the building, which had by the time she returned engulfed the entire floor, McCoy was immediately overwhelmed by smoke, toxic fumes, and flames when the elevator doors opened.

Seven additional building residents and two Chicago firefighters were injured in the fire, which began in an apartment unit on the 12th floor of the 21-floor building and quickly spread through the apartment’s open door.

Basic features of modern fire codes would have saved McCoy’s life. Unlike buildings built after 1975, this high-rise’s elevators do not stop working when a smoke detector is activated, nor is there a building-wide alert system. The apartment building, located at 3130 North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, was outfitted with neither a sprinkler system nor a building-wide fire alarm system. Residents living above and below the 12th floor where the fire started confirmed that they did not hear any fire alarms going off at the time.

House fire caused by space heater kills three in Ohio

December 29, 2011

A house fire that killed three people in Columbus, Ohio the night of Christmas Eve was caused by a space heater, used by the family after gas was cut off from their home. The heater ignited the mattress they were sleeping on.

Killed in the blaze were 22-year-old Jerrica Francisco, her four-year-old son Deshawn, and 33-year-old Demetrius Chappell.

The family lived in appalling poverty. Jerrica Francisco paid rent on the home, which had been declared uninhabitable in 2009, but was given no lease. Residents in the neighborhood of Franklinton, on the city’s west side, thought the house was vacant. Before moving in, the family had been living in their car.

The house had no kitchen appliances and was without a functioning water heater. Electrical wiring was defective, the plumbing leaked, and the water was contaminated, according to city building code records.

Columbia Gas disconnected natural gas service on the day of the fire, after the furnace malfunctioned, leaving the family in the cold on Christmas. Fire investigators said the electricity may also have been shut off.

Disabled man killed in Detroit-area apartment fire

December 22, 2011

A deadly fire erupted early Thursday morning in Hazel Park, Michigan, a working class suburb north of Detroit, killing a retired auto worker and injuring three other people living in a 56-unit apartment complex.

The blaze is one of several in the metropolitan Detroit area recently, with the majority hitting poor and working class areas.

Fire Chief Ray Dewalt of the Hazel Park Fire Department told the World Socialist Web Site they received a call at 6:50 a.m. that there was an apartment fire at the Woodward Heights Manor apartment complex. Dewalt said they were told flames were coming out of the front window and had engulfed one of the units.

“We did an interior attack and we located a fatality in that apartment,” stated Dewalt. “We also rescued three other people out of windows, and we have taken at least three people to the hospital and have had multiple people checked for smoke inhalation or smoke irritation.”

Later in the day the fire department determined that the fire was caused by a smoking-related accident. The blaze apparently broke out on the first floor before spreading to the upper stories.

Detroit house-fire season begins amid cuts in firefighting

December 11, 2011

Early Friday morning a fire swept through a two-flat home on Detroit’s eastside, trapping two families with five children, including a one-month-old child and a disabled senior citizen, in a massive blaze.

This is an area of the city where the local fire station is regularly “browned out” or closed on a day-to-day basis due to budget cuts. In November, Detroit Executive Fire Commissioner Don Austin asked the City Council if they would support “browning out” 17 stations. “Response times are going to increase, and your phones are going to start ringing—am I going to have the support of council? So we are talking about 59 down to 42,” said Austin, referring to the number of fire stations in Detroit. Last year, there were 66 fire companies in the extensive 139-square mile city.

In this case, family members owe their survival to the fact that nearby Station 52 was manned and opened on the day of the fire. Also, the quick action of family members and neighbors was decisive.

At 6:30am the fire erupted at 3983 Devonshire, on Detroit’s northeast side, an area notable for its larger, brick colonial-style homes. Ray Canty, 21, who lives next door, spoke to the WSWS, explaining that the occupants of the lower flat woke him up, knocking on his door and screaming that their house was on fire.

House fire in Detroit suburb kills three in multi-generation home

October 4, 2011

A fire broke out the early morning hours of October 2 in a house in Oak Park, Michigan, a working class suburb of Detroit, resulting in the deaths of the three oldest adults living in the small brick home. In all, eight people resided in the house.

The exact cause of the fire, reported at 1:30am, is still under investigation. Lt. Michael Pemberton of the Oak Park Fire Department told the media the fire was apparently an accident related to the kitchen stove.

After desperate attempts to put out the fire and save the victims, firefighters found Eumpsey Knott, 81 and Lois Knott, 64, as well as their son, Odier Knott, 35, on the ground floor of the home. All three died.

Another daughter, Faydra Smith, 34, was rushed to the hospital and is in critical condition. She suffered smoke inhalation and burns, and was reported to have had a heart attack as a result of the fire.

The only family members in the house to survive the fire unhurt were Smith’s three children, aged 14, 13 and 6. They were in the basement when the fire took place and escaped by climbing out of a basement window.

Six die in Vancouver, Washington, house fire

May 1, 2011

Investigators have determined that a fire that engulfed a home in the city of Vancouver, Washington, early Easter Sunday, claiming the lives of a father and his five children, was arson. Surveillance images and the remnants of a gas can suggest that the fire was lit by the father, Tuan Dao, who was distraught over marital and financial problems.

The victims were identified as Tuan Dao and five of his six children: Nolan A. Dao, 12; Noah A. Dao, 9; Jacob A. Dao, 9; Samantha A. Dao, 8; and Nathan A. Dao, 6. Tuan Dao was 37 years old. Mr. Dao’s wife, Lori Dao, and his oldest daughter were residing at another house at the time.

Tuan and Lori Dao filed for divorce after losing their personal home and another home to foreclosure. They filed for bankruptcy last September. The bankruptcy filing shows $160,000 in credit card and other debts, including $2,000 in gambling debt. The couple owed $262,000 on the mortgage on the house that burned down, but the value of the house had plummeted to $179,000.

Both Tuan and Lori Dao were employed, jointly making $86,000 annually, but their assets were negligible. They had less than $800 in two checking accounts and expected about an $8,000 refund for their 2010 taxes.

Detroit house fire kills child, injures another

April 22, 2011

An intense house fire erupted around 11 a.m. on April 21 in a home on Detroit’s northeast side, killing a four-year child and sending her five-year-old brother to the hospital in critical condition for smoke inhalation.

The 90-year-old wooden structure is in a working class neighborhood near Hamtramck, an enclave inside Detroit home to people of many different ethnicities. Neighbors—black, white and Yemeni— rushed to the family’s aid.

According to the Detroit Fire Department, the fire that engulfed the house on the 13200 block of Buffalo street began in the front living room. Fire Captain Frank Maiorana said the two adults in the home, a 16-year-old baby sitter and a father with a third child, a six-month-old infant, ran out of the home. They later went back inside to look for the other two children, after they realized they were still inside.

“The fire was too intense,” said Captain Maiorana. “They could not find the children. They were found later by the firefighters in the back bedroom,” he explained.

Pennsylvania farm family loses seven children to fire

March 9, 2011

Late Tuesday evening a fire engulfed the house on a family farm in Blain, Pennsylvania, killing seven of eight children. The blaze completely destroyed the structure owned by the Clouse family, which was located off a rural road about 25 miles north of the state capital.

The fire began after 10 p.m. when the children’s mother was performing the evening chore of milking the cows and their father was at work. The Clouse’s three-year-old daughter ran to the barn to get her mother, Janelle, who first tried to get into the house but was unable to. She then went to a neighbor’s home to call 911, but discovered they were not home and had to go to another neighbor’s place farther down the road.

Janelle then ran to alert her husband. Ted Clouse, who was out on his truck picking up milk from local farms for delivery to stores the next morning, had nodded off while waiting for a farmer to turn over his product. He was parked about a mile down the road from their house.

Janelle woke him up, and the two ran back to the home. But the distances, as is typical in farm country, were too great. By the time the Clouses got back to the house their seven children—girls ages 11, 9, 6, 4, 2 and 7 months and a 7-year-old boy—had died of smoke inhalation.

New York: Elderly woman killed in blaze after fire department cutbacks

February 17, 2011

On February 11, a fire at an apartment building in Brooklyn, New York, killed one elderly woman and injured seven other people. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that recent budget cuts affecting the New York Fire Department may have prevented firefighters from putting out the fire in a timely manner so as to avoid casualties and minimize damage.

Just days before the fire, on February 1, the FDNY was forced to reduce staff on 60 of its engine companies. One-hundred thirty firefighters were needed to put out the blaze.

Most residents of the building, located in the working-class neighborhood of East Flatbush, were asleep when the three-alarm fire erupted on the second floor at 6:03 a.m. Three people were rushed to the hospital, two with serious injuries. One of the victims, 70-year-old Claudette Nicolas, was pronounced dead at Brookdale Hospital after she was found in the living room of her second-floor apartment. Another elderly woman was treated for smoke inhalation and is now in stable condition. Several firefighters were also injured when the floor beneath them collapsed. Many residents were rescued from fire escapes and the roof of the building, with dozens forced out into the bitter cold.

Unemployed Detroit woman dies in house fire

January 27, 2011

Early Thursday morning, January 27, a 49-year-old unemployed nurse died in a house fire on Detroit’s east side. Irene Smith Spencer reportedly suffered from ill health and was on disability benefits, which are notoriously inadequate and generally guarantee poverty. She was using space heaters after her furnace had gone out, according to neighbors and friends.

Spencer lived on the 12000 block of Nashville, a tidy, working class neighborhood reminiscent of what Detroit looked like in the 1970s before the massive auto layoffs began. Despite her early death, Irene Spencer was the only member of her family left and lived alone with three dogs and a cat. “All of her kids died before her,” stated Elaine Mills, Spencer’s sister. Only one dog escaped the fire.

Mills told the WSWS, “She tried to get out of the house. She was found on the floor at the front door just inside of the house, but just couldn’t make it out.” Rescuers took Spencer to a nearby hospital in an attempt to save her life; however, she was pronounced dead on arrival.