Legal news for New York Premises Liability lawyers—A Utica fatal blaze consumed an apartment building due to NY landlord failure to register units for fire inspection.
Utica, NY (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) — A privately owned apartment complex in Utica burst into flames on Sunday after landlord failed to register 7 of his units for fire safety evaluations and now 4 tenants are dead, announced the Utica Observer-Dispatch.
The landlord appeared will appear in Utica City Court to respond to charges about the unregistered buildings. The fire that started in the apartment building went undetected due to the broken smoke alarms within the apartments, which killed 4 people on Sunday. The landlord, identified as Timothy Klotz, has failed to fix the problem with his apartment registry since last year. It is not known why the Utica City did not address the landlord’s issue sooner.
In April 2008, it was not on the books that Klotz had not registered his apartments for a fire safety evaluation. That summer, the Utica Court Judge told Klotz that he was required to register his buildings within 10 days. Sunday night, the firefighter’s sifted through the rumble, caused by the fatal blaze, where they found out that a lot of the fire alarms were not functional.
In 2006, all landlords with Utica properties were required under fire inspections law to register all their properties. Klotz’s comment was that he was not wrong to do what he did. The four people that died in the fire have not been identified.
Bridget Hom
NewYorkInjuryNews.com