Click Here for The Record Coverage on the House Fire on James Street

Reproduced from The Record

Friday, September 1, 2006

by Michael J. Wildes, Mayor, City of Englewood

2-10 N. Van Brunt Street

Englewood , NJ 07631

201.871.6666

Daunting Process Keeps Illegal Housing Out of Sight

Housing inspectors in North Jersey have seen it all: attic bedrooms without fire escapes, basements lined with bunk beds, mattresses crammed into a four-bedroom apartment where 70 laborers slept in shifts.

"These things are pretty much like land mines," said city of Passaic Fire Chief T.N. Zayatz. "They're underneath the surface until something happens."

In Englewood, that "something" was a fire that swept through what officials said was an illegally subdivided basement, killing two immigrants and leaving another hospitalized.

"It's unfortunate that this incident took place before we could make any necessary amendments to the ordinance that would allow us a little more authority to go in and prevent this sort of thing from happening," said City Manager Cheryl Fuller.

Fuller said city officials had wanted to consider ideas for amending the city's 2005 inspection ordinance -- which critics say has favored privacy rights to the detriment of safety -- before the fatal fire. She said she was planning to meet with Englewood's fire chief and construction official "early next week."

Under the city ordinance adopted last year, inspectors must obtain a search warrant or consent from an occupant to conduct inspections during the day.

Authorities on Thursday identified the two people killed by the predawn fire as Sriwipha "Ana" Phathan, 27, who was from Thailand, and Domingo Ortega Flores, 41, from Mexico. Augustin Palafox, 22, also from Mexico, remained in critical condition Thursday at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, authorities said.

O'Keefe said he will review a preliminary autopsy report from the Medical Examiner's Office before determining whether to press criminal charges against the owners of the house.

Inspectors say immigration and the red-hot housing market have tempted owners to convert any available space into extra units. In some cases, the owners themselves move into the basement and rent out the upstairs to pay the mortgage.

"Here, the cost of duplexes and homes has gone up tremendously, [and] it's triggered people to look for other ways to pay their bills," said Chad McCarthy, a Palisades Park code enforcement officer.

"It's only a matter of time until they rent out the basement," he said. "People buy them, pop in a kitchenette, put holes in the wall to connect to plumbing, and there you are."

Over the past five years, Palisades Park officials have assembled an inspection team that has knocked on doors at 5 a.m., usually in response to complaints by neighbors.

The landlord even provided a van to take them to classes and did their food shopping for them once a week, he said.

"Everything was neat. All the smoke and fire alarms worked," McCarthy said. "It was just the fact that they were overcrowded."

The borough evicted the illegal tenants immediately, but required landlords to put up the tenants in hotels or pay their rents elsewhere.

Englewood took the team approach, going door-to-door in certain areas, but it triggered a political upheaval in the Latino community. Some families felt the inspections were too intrusive and unfairly targeted one ethnic group.

To avoid that criticism, inspectors in several other municipalities wait for a tip from a neighbor or municipal worker. Englewood now uses that "complaint-driven" approach, too.

"Someone can easily pick up their head and say you're picking on me because of the way I look, the way I sound," said Frank Valenzuela, a Palisades Park inspector who recently also worked in Closter.

Educating immigrants about safety is important, said Valenzuela, who said he's thinking of assembling an inter-municipal working group to deal with illegal boarding houses.

"Safety should not have any barriers or be used politically," he said. "Fire doesn't discriminate. It burns all."

"The borough clerk looks when people register for parking stickers," McCarthy said. "The DPW also looks out for the quantity of garbage."

"There should be a criminal sanction when someone knowingly goes in and collects rent on multiple [illegal] homes," the mayor said.

Inspectors said the best enforcement happens when the whole community gets involved. It's about saving lives, not tattling on a neighbor, McCarthy said.

"People move in and expect a single-family neighborhood," Szabo said. "The eyes on the street are pretty strong."

A pre-dawn fire in an illegally converted home in Englewood killed two tenants and critically injured another Wednesday after the victims were trapped in the basement, authorities said.

Owners of the James Street home had converted the basement into a boarding house and removed a stairwell connecting it to the first floor, turning it into a deathtrap, officials said.

The tragedy led some to point fingers at a change made last year in how the city inspects housing. The change came after residents complained of overzealous officials intimidating Latino immigrants. Critics on Wednesday blamed Mayor Michael Wildes, an immigration attorney, for his role in the change. Wildes, in turn, said it was the City Council that approved new rules in 2005 on how aggressively code officials could conduct searches. He said he has merely worked with Hispanics to make sure the inspectors were culturally sensitive and didn't violate civil rights.

Natalia Cortes, who lives in the house at 79 James St., said she was awakened by the frantic screams of her mother telling everyone to get out quick. Her parents own the house.

"I saw smoke and I just ran out barefoot," said Natalia, 13. "I tried to grab everything I could, but all I could find was a towel. I was like 'Oh, snap! This isn't happening."

Flames engulfed the basement and black smoke billowed from the windows of the 2½-story home when firefighters arrived at 3:44 a.m., three minutes after receiving a 911 call, Moran said.

Rescue workers with thermal-imaging helmets rushed into the basement to try and find the three tenants trapped inside, the chief said. The basement had no functioning smoke detectors, he said.

The firefighters found a man and woman lying in one of the bedrooms, both sprawled over the side of the bed. The third victim was found in a bathroom with the sink still running, Moran said. Wounds on his hands and body indicate he'd been trying to put out the fire, the chief said.

Authorities late Wednesday were having trouble identifying the victims because the owners only had their first names. The couple -- identified as Domingo and Ana -- appeared to have died from smoke asphyxiation, Moran said. The third victim was taken to Englewood Hospital, where authorities said he remained in critical condition late Wednesday.

All three were immigrants -- two from Mexico and one from Thailand -- who had been living in the country for at least a year, those who knew them said.

Residents and a municipal official said the fire could have been prevented if the city hadn't softened its enforcement of code violations.

The city began conducting safety violations sweeps in 1997. In 2003, inspections in the largely Hispanic neighborhood of James, West, and Charles streets led to an outcry. A group of fire, police, and building officials descended like "a strike force," frightening tenants at night, said David Bernal, a founding member of Englewood's Hispanic-American Alliance.

In response, Wildes convened a task force, which found that the inspections were "intrusive and bordered on civil rights violations."

Last year, the council approved an ordinance requiring inspectors to get a search warrant or consent from an occupant and to conduct inspections during the day.

Zoning officer Don Porrino, who was the city's construction official at the time, said this made conducting searches less efficient and gave occupants time to hide signs of crowded housing.

Horace Ragbir, who lives four blocks from the fire scene, said Wildes took up the inspections issue to gain votes among Hispanics. The move prevented fire and building officials from doing their jobs, he said.

"This could have been prevented," Ragbir said. "We should do what's right and safe for people and not look for votes."

Wildes, who is running for a new term in November, blasted his critics for politicizing the fire deaths. "Never did I ever want the inspections to be curtailed in any way," he said.

The ordinance, which as mayor he didn't vote on, "never restricted the ability of our inspectors," Wildes said. "If Mr. Porrino felt the city should have taken more proactive actions in the past, he is derelict in his duty in not bringing this to our attention and is trying to cover his ass."

"There might be some minor things that need to be tweaked," added council President Scott Reddin. "You can still do inspections without violating someone's civil rights."

Councilwoman Charlotte Bennett Schoen and former Councilman Doug Bern, who also voted in favor of the move, were on vacation Wednesday and couldn't be reached.

The large vinyl-sided house, built in 1903, was bought by Oscar and Nubia Cortes in 2002, property records show. The couple, who lived there with their family, didn't obtain renovation permits, Moran said.

Varintra "Bee" Chiasuwan, a friend of the dead woman, said Ana had been attending language school in Bergenfield to learn English. She had arrived from Thailand over a year ago, and had dreamed of eventually opening a restaurant with her family, her friend said.

Domingo often was seen at El Paso Grocery on West Palisade Avenue, where he had worked as a cashier for at least two years.

Moran said the fire appeared to have started on a couch in the basement. Although investigators hadn't yet determined what ignited it or its exact point of origin, they deemed it an accident, he said.