On January 9, a fatal fire in the Twins Park complex in the Bronx left 19 dead, 8 of them children, and 66 wounded. Exactly five months later, New York City enacted five fire safety laws, ramping up prevention and education efforts in the wake of the worst fire safety tragedy in recent memory 19 years.
Now the terms of inspection of the operation of self-closing doors in buildings will be shorter. But the fines will also be much higher for owners who do not correct these flaws in a timely manner.
In addition, the new laws aim to root out one of the elements with the greatest risk of generating fire and explosions. during cold days, since the sale in the Big Apple of certain electric heaters that do not meet safety standards is prohibited.
In this regard, the New York City Department of Consumers and Workers (DCWP) will ensure that space heaters sold in New York City York are properly labeled, certified, have a thermostat and automatically shut off.
“The tragic Twin Parks fire was a call to action. These laws strengthen fire safety for New Yorkers. It is now abundantly clear that self-closing doors are critical to protecting lives,” said Adolfo Carrión Jr, New York City Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner (HPD).
Also the councilwoman , Pierina Sánchez, president of the Housing Committee and one of the promoters of the new regulatory package, also valued the educational scope that the City is considering by expanding the safety messages in ten languages.
“These first laws addressing the Twin Parks fire is just a start , to be clear. We will continue to improve fire safety, putting more responsibilities on owners, modernizing our building codes”, explained the local legislator.
A tragic lesson
The painful tragedy in the Bronx that inspired these new laws, according to official expertise, was associated with a faulty door that did not close due to the absence of safety springs. It was the main factor that helped the smoke to spread to a large part of the building.
The fire originated in a duplex apartment on the second and third floors of the Twin Parks North West building, of 17 floors, located at 333 East Street 181 in the Tremont neighborhood, due to problems with an electric heater. From that apartment a dense cloud of smoke spread throughout almost the entire residential tower.
The people who died were found in areas of the stairs on several floors of the building.
The investigations concluded that the thick smoke could have traveled to all the floors, leaving the victims unconscious, precisely due to failures in the springs.
For her part, the interim commissioner of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), Laura Kavanagh, put on the table the relevance of what it means that this agency now has more legal resources to educate New Yorkers about fire prevention.
“These bills, and the Mayor’s Executive Order increasing coordination between our department and HPD, will strengthen the FDNY’s ability to reach our city’s most needy residents with timely education messages that will save lives,” the head of the FDNY said.
Mayor Eric Adams had signed an executive order in March to immediately improve the coordination and scope of safety against accidents of fire.
“Today, I am proud to have worked with the City Council to create long-term solutions that strengthen the application of e the law and education and avoid these tragedies”, he concluded.
In detail: The five new fire laws in NYC
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