A couple who survived the raging fire that occurred in a building in the Bronx last Sunday, which left people dead, including eight children , filed a complaint claiming a compensation of 1.17 million dollars.
The complaint filed by the couple made up of Rosa Reyes and Félix Martínez, and which was shown by the local channel ABC7, was filed against the managers of the building and against the city mayor.
The couple filed the complaint individually and on behalf of others in a similar situation”, and qualified it of “the first complaint”, predicting that other similar ones will follow.
In the document, Reyes and Martínez claim to have suffered injuries in that fire and They present four complaints to the building managers: not ensuring the automatic closing of the metal doors; malfunctioning smoke detectors; not providing adequate heating and allowing errors in fire alarms.
The fire started when an electric stove caught fire and burned a mattress on the second floor due to the carelessness of the residents of that apartment, who by leaving quickly left the door of their home open and that caused the fire and smoke to rise rapidly through the 19 floors of the building, where 120 apartments were distributed.
Among the testimonies that were collected from those affected by the fire, many pointed out that the fire alarms went off all the time and few took them seriously; others mentioned that the central heating was very low and it was cold in the apartments.
According to what was reported by ABC7, some residents have begun to return to their apartments, in those cases where there is no major damage; while others continue to stay in hotels at the expense of the municipality while they process public aid.
The list of dead made public, whose total is 17 deaths, eight of them children, presents a large majority of victims who were from two or three families, from Gambia and of Muslim religion.
It may interest you:
- VIDEO: Latina shares how she was evicted from burning building in the Bronx
- Two lawsuits are filed for $3 billion for the fatal fire in the Bronx120