NY Post – November 20, 2014
by Kirstan Conley and Joe Tacopino
An apartment in the Brooklyn building where a blaze killed a tenant and injured 16 others had been illegally divided into cramped, dangerous living spaces, FDNY sources said.
The fire, sparked by a faulty refrigerator wire, broke out at about 12:35 a.m. Wednesday in a three-story building on Flatbush Avenue near Farragut Road that also housed a storefront church, Âaccording to the sources.
The tenement was plagued by perilous electrical conditions, Âincluding exposed wires, fire Âmarshals said. After the blaze, the Department of Buildings ordered the remaining residents to vacate.
The owner of the building told The Post that without his consent, a second-floor tenant had created 11 illegal small rooms in his apartment.
The fire claimed the life of a man, believed to be in his early 20s, whose identity was not Âimmediately known, cops said.
The blaze was confined to the second and third floors of the building and firefighters got it Âunder control at about 1:55 a.m., officials said.
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