Mayor Adams Orders Investigation of Bronx Fire to Prevent Similar Violations in Buildings Citywide

By Yehudit Garmaise

Days after 17 New Yorkers died in a terrible fire in an apartment building in the Bronx, many shaken residents wonder what the city is doing to prevent such destructive blazes in their buildings, which may have similar problems with heating and doors that have been blamed for the many tragic deaths on Sunday.

“We need to make sure city agencies identify [building] violations and [then] correct them, but I have the utmost confidence in my agencies and the fire marshals to come up with a real cause of what happened here, so we can prevent as much as possible in the future,” Mayor Adams said today at a press conference that took place outside the Civil Courthouse in Manhattan.

When a reporter asked Mayor Adams whether it was true that a member of his transition team owned the Bronx building and whether he had spoken with him “to hold him accountable,” the mayor responded that he had more than 1,000 people on his transition team, and that he had not communicated at all with that particular former employee.

In describing his transition team, the mayor explained that it was his “goal to put together a transition team with a cross-section of New Yorkers: those who own homes [and buildings] and those who were tenant advocates, so we could hear voices from the entire city.

“I think far too often, we draw lines and put up walls, and we are unwilling to sit in the room with those with whom we disagree. I did not want that.”

According to Mayor Adams, the most important question is, “How do we prevent things like that from happening again?

“I have the utmost trust in my agencies to conduct a thorough investigation to determine what happened.”

Photo by: Flickr