City Deems Fire Damaged Buildings In Brooklyn Unsafe After Blaze

BROOKLYN, NY — Neighbors in Brooklyn had repeatedly reported illegal construction at two adjacent Boerum Place buildings where a blaze injured a dozen people Monday, finally prompting the city to deem the sites unsafe for tenants, records show.

After hundreds of firefighters got a five-alarm blaze at 96 Boerum Place under control, inspectors from the Department of Buildings determined that the apartment building-slash-gym, and an adjacent building at 110 Boerum Place, were too fire damaged for tenants to be there safely.

Inspectors also found that unsafe construction was underway at 110 Boerum Place, where people had removed parts of the roof and were doing electrical work without permits, records show.

The agency halted all the work at that building, but neighbors had been complaining about unlawful construction at both of the fire damaged buildings for years, according to building records.

Last year someone reported debris falling off the side of 110 Boerum Place, which also housed a gym and apartments, because of construction. In 2017 unlawful construction was reported at 96 Boerum Place, and several years before that someone complained that a sports bubble was built on the roof without permits.

All of these reports were investigated by the agency, and resolved in the same way: inspectors didn't find evidence to back up the complaints when they stopped by, so they didn't issue any violations.

Asked Monday if construction played a part in the fire, Acting Chief of Department John Hodgens said he didn't think so, adding that the intensity of the fire was because of the material used on the roof.

"The roof was used for some type of tennis court with a foam insulation, and once that starts burning it's difficult to extinguish," he said (de facto affirming the complaint about the building's sports bubble).

Hodgens added that fire officials were working with the Red Cross to help people in the buildings find housing.

The building at 96 Boerum Place had 10 apartments, which, according to Howard Kolins, president of the Boerum Hill Association, have been totally destroyed.

"They appear to be a complete loss," he said of the apartments in a GoFundMe page aimed at raising funds for the fire victims. "We are working to identify all the residents who now have nothing," he wrote.

Council Member Lincoln Restler, who represents swaths of northwest Brooklyn, also started a fundraiser page for the people who lived in the buildings, reiterating that people lost everything during the blaze.

"Many residents lost everything they owned today. The nine households who have been living here include two families with kids, three dogs, two cats, and a fish," he wrote.

Both buildings, which are on Boerum Place between Dean and Pacific streets, have apartments on the second floor (where Hodgens said the fire started) and a recently-opened UFC FIT gym on the ground floor, which Patch wasn't able to reach for comment.

Fire officials did not specify the cause of the fire, noting that the case is under investigation by the Fire Marshall.

Related Article: 12 Hurt, Over 200 Firefighters Respond To Brooklyn Gym Fire: FDNY