Spring Valley house fire: Electrical overload eyed
SPRING VALLEY – Inspectors are investigating whether overloaded electrical circuits caused the fire that destroyed t...
Spring Valley house fire: Electrical overload eyed SPRING VALLEY – Inspectors are investigating whether overloaded electrical circuits caused the fire that destroyed t... Check out this story on lohud.com: http://lohud.us/1hDwY4p
TJN Published 3:30 p.m. ET Nov. 12, 2013 | Updated 10:34 a.m. ET Nov. 13, 2013
Firefighters at 357 Roosevelt Ave. in Spring Valley on Tuesday. Inspectors are investigating whether overloaded electrical circuits caused the fire. (Photo: Alex Taylor/The Journal News )Buy Photo
SPRING VALLEY – Inspectors are investigating whether overloaded electrical circuits caused the fire that destroyed the upper floor of what officials determined was an illegally subdivided house, officials said Wednesday.
The house at 357 Roosevelt Ave. is the subject of an eviction proceeding in court involving the Deutsche Bank and several tenants, officials said. The next court date is scheduled for Nov. 21.
Fire inspectors believe two people were still living in the three-story house and the flames ignited on the top floor. The woman living on the top floor was using oil radiator heater and microwave amid clothes scattered around the appliances, Fire Inspector Ray Guarnuccio said Wednesday.
"Possibly, she overloaded the electrical," Guarnuccio said. "The whole front half of the floor is destroyed. It's repairable. The first floor has a lot of water damage from the hose lines."
The heat from the flames blew out the top floor windows and sent smoke billowing into the sky. The fire was reported just before 2 p.m., bringing out 30 volunteers from the Spring Valley and Hillcrest fire departments, officials said.
"It was just smoke going," said Gordon Wren Jr., Rockland's director of Fire and Emergency Services. "Then the windows blew out. All that oxygen rushed in — it's a windy day. And the fire just flashed and took off."
No one was reported injured in the blaze. But the fire left the 2,150-square-foot, vinyl-sided structure, which officials said had been carved up into 10, single-occupancy bedrooms, charred and uninhabitable.
The house sits on a street a few blocks behind the International Food Mart. The neighborhood is in a diverse section of Spring Valley populated by Haitian, Hispanic and Filipino immigrants.
The property had been foreclosed in August 2010 by Deutsche Bank National Trust Company. The former owners included Yisorel Silverman and MCR Real Estate LLC, according to officials and Rockland County Clerk's Office record. There was a $340,000 mortgage on the building, records show
The property had been managed by Jonathan Weiss, who oversees numerous buildings in the village, Guarnuccio said. The bank took ownership.
According to village building inspectors, 357 Roosevelt Ave. was originally a group home owned by Lakeside School, which operated until 2005. Officials said it was then used as an adult home before being converted into a boarding house. The operation of a boarding house with single-room-occupancies is illegal in Spring Valley.
Fire officials said firefighters had answered several calls at address, which has also been cited for building and fire code violations.
Rockland volunteer firefighters have been campaigning to crack down on illegally subdivided houses in recent years. They say the houses, many of them in Ramapo and Spring Valley, pose an acute risk to tenants and firefighters.
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