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Q&A
Process for allowing residents to retrieve belongings after a fire
0:41:26
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140 sec
Deputy Commissioner Yigal Shemash of the DOB explains the process for allowing residents to retrieve belongings from apartments after a fire, in response to Council Member Joann Ariola's question.
- Access depends on the extent of damage to the building.
- In the Wallace Avenue fire example, lower floor tenants were allowed access with security and engineering supervision.
- The department assists in retrieving immediate necessities like medication and pets.
- For severely damaged areas, like the collapsed roof on the 6th floor of Wallace Avenue, retrieval takes significantly longer due to safety concerns and potential hazards like asbestos.
Joann Ariola
0:41:26
To what extent is access to apartments limited once the fire happens?
0:41:32
We had a fire in my own district recently, high rise co op, two sister buildings, one went on fire, it was a complete vacate.
0:41:41
And then so how long after the complete vacate would our people permitted to go back in and salvage whatever they can from the apartments?
0:41:51
BDOB.
Yigal Shemash
0:41:57
It wholly depends on the amount of damage that occurs in a building.
0:42:04
But again going back to the Wallace Avenue fire that's been referenced, that building had almost a complete roof collapse, and the Sixth Floor because of that was inaccessible.
0:42:18
However, we were able to get tenants on the lower floors.
0:42:24
The owner of the building implemented their own security.
0:42:29
They were able to identify which tenants belonged in which units.
0:42:35
We had the owner also have a professional engineer on-site during that escort process to make sure that the tenants were safe.
0:42:45
And of course, the security was escorting them as well.
0:42:48
But again, these were implemented by the owner per our direction.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:42:54
Thank you.
Yigal Shemash
0:42:55
And and that's for retrieval of belongings, specifically after a fire.
0:43:01
And if we can get the folks in to get their immediate needs, whether that's medication, pets, we will certainly assist in any way we can.
0:43:12
For Wallace Avenue, we had our assistant commissioner Frank McCarton there numerous days after the the fire.
0:43:22
We had our forensic engineers there as well.
0:43:25
We were instrumental in implementing some pet rescues, having folks go in and and retrieve the belongings as quickly as possible.
0:43:35
But on the Sixth Floor where the roof collapsed, that took a significant amount more time, especially because of the asbestos materials from the roof.