by Jan Ransom
NOW, they’re even more fired up. Harlem tenants were furious — and frightened — after a blaze erupted inside their moldy, bug-infested building early Friday and the sprinkler and alarm systems failed.
Residents at the decrepit Ennis Francis building on W. 124th St. near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., owned by the Abyssinian Development Corp., were forced to evacuate when the fire broke out in a second-floor apartment at 2:38 a.m., officials said.
“The sprinkler system didn’t work,” said one outraged tenant, Kim White. “We didn’t get no notice — just smoke.”
White’s neighbor, Bakisye Oliver, 24, said she tried pulling an alarm near her apartment door but it, too, was broken.
“We were running through the halls trying to get people out,” she said. Officials at Abyssinian Development Corp. did not return several requests seeking comment.
The Rev. Calvin Butts, who founded the development corporation and serves as its chairman, said he had not received information indicating there was a problem with the building’s sprinkler and fire alarm systems.
Three firefighters suffered minor injuries during the blaze, which took nearly an hour to extinguish. They were transported to St. Luke’s Hospital, fire officials said. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The blaze caused smoke and water damage to several apartments. At least four apartments had missing windows.
Frustrated tenants who had already clamored for repairs wondered how long it will take before they receive new windows.
“We’re going to have to get out and purchase our own windows if we want it replaced,” said Oliver.
Butts said minor repairs were already underway on Friday.
Dozens of tenants at the complex have been waiting to move out of the decaying buildings and into a gleaming new eight-story building a block away.
Construction at that site was delayed for months when Abyssinian ran into financial troubles. The work resumed this summer, Butts said, adding that it will be complete by February.
No comments yet.