Deadly Bronx fire puts focus on space
heaters some see as ‘symbols of inequity’
NBC News,
by
Erik Ortiz
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
1/11/2022 10:40:35 PM
As investigators determine what led an electric space heater to spark the deadliest fire in New York City in more than three decades, tenants and tenant advocacy groups in similar housing fear the conditions are ripe for disaster to strike again. Some are drawing attention to systemic issues that go beyond a single piece of malfunctioning equipment. (Snip) The deadly fire that claimed the lives of 17 people in a high-rise tower in the Bronx is a grim reminder of how space heaters can be a "symbol of inequity," she said, representing dangerous housing conditions, poor infrastructure, and neglect in
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
padiva 1/11/2022 10:51:33 PM (No. 1035566)
I have a space heater (radiator) in my bathroom. I like it warm when I shower.
14 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Northcross 1/11/2022 10:58:20 PM (No. 1035575)
Another example of always using a tragedy to push your political agenda. Equity indeed!
26 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
LadyHen 1/11/2022 11:21:52 PM (No. 1035584)
We use a small space heater to warm up the back office/spare room where our century home is not quite as well insulated. It has a tip over shut off but we also never use it without someone being present or at least within a few paces. I also have 3 fully charged fire extinguishers placed around our home (bedroom, kitchen, utility room).
But now I am confused. If you are getting rid of natural gas and all petroleum based heating options, everything will be electric right?
You can pry my natural gas heat pump from my (not so) cold dead hands!! Best heat ever!!
7 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
pixelero 1/11/2022 11:24:58 PM (No. 1035585)
Right. Had a sister nearly killed in the late 60s by the fire caused by a malfunctioning area heater.
How many of the accidents of life can you ascribe to a, “symbol of inequity”?
All of ‘em, I guess, if you’ve got that kind of imagination.
What a bunch of imbeciles.
14 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
skacmar 1/11/2022 11:25:05 PM (No. 1035586)
Um, didn't some woke bureaucrat in NYC just ban the use of gas lines for new buildings (and probably remodels) and mandate things like ELECTRIC HEAT in buildings? Imagine a building full of electric heat, supplemented by space heaters.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
thewarden 1/11/2022 11:31:46 PM (No. 1035589)
Oh please, the house I grew up in was built in 1925 and my dad removed all the gas powered heaters in each room when we moved in (1965) because they weren’t vented and dangerous. We used electric space heaters in the bedrooms on the rare So. Cal nights that were chilly. Boo hoo...
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Grateful 1/11/2022 11:41:58 PM (No. 1035594)
The article describes a woman sharing her section 8 subsidized housing with her 3 adult children. Really?
16 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
JimBob 1/11/2022 11:42:39 PM (No. 1035595)
Four thoughts:
1) Not a PEEP that I have read in the Media about smoke detectors, or the lack therof.
Functioning smoke detectors most likely would have alerted everyone in the apartment as soon
as something got smoldering good, well before it became a life-threatening fire. (As making
sure the smoke detectors worked could be the RESPONSIBILITY of the people living there, am
I being a 'White Supremacist' for mentioning this?, after all, in today's media, it seems that "It's All Whitey's Fault".)
2) For myself, I ONLY use 'warm air' type space heaters, with thermostats and tip-over switches.
However, there are many 'radiant-heat' heaters on the market. One of these, faced directly onto a flammable surface will heat,
and heat, and heat..... until the surface DOES catch fire.
What type of 'space heater' was involved in this fire? Anyone know?
3) I read an article that the 'slumlord millionaire' who owns this property has been cited many times for
Fire Doors that do not work properly IN THIS BUILDING. Perhaps the penalty -for FAILURE TO REPAIR
defective safety equipment in a PROMPT manner- should be increased to an amount such that it Gets their Attention and these
SAFETY VIOLATIONS are repaired PROMPTLY!
4) Everyone...... CHECK your Smoke Detectors! If it's on the ceiling, it only takes a few seconds to push the button with a broom handle,
and if you need a new battery or a new detector, it's only a buck or two for a battery, and ten bucks for a new detector
down at 'Big Box' store!
16 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
bighambone 1/11/2022 11:46:49 PM (No. 1035600)
The space heater apparently was set up in a bedroom where it came in contact with flammable cloth or other material that caught fire and burned from there. The apartment where the fire stated was occupied by a man, his wife, and eight children, immigrants from Africa. When they fled the fire in their apartment they apparently left the apartment door open allowing heavy black smoke to push up through the hallway and up through the 16 floors located above the 3rd floor apartment that was on fire. It was that dangerous smoke that killed and injured the people, most all also immigrants from Africa, in the hallways all the way to the top of the 19 story apartment building.
9 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Catherine 1/12/2022 12:05:46 AM (No. 1035610)
I love space heaters. Grew up with them and even had them in my early married years. You have to be very careful but most people are. What shocked me about that fire in the Bronx was that there were no smoke detectors. How did it pass inspection? This was an unnecessary tragedy.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
smokincol 1/12/2022 12:29:55 AM (No. 1035617)
this is not a case of "‘symbols of inequity’" it is clearly a case of atrocious management and maintenance on this and I would guess, many other buildings like this that cattle car populations, especially in modern day big cities. this is an inhumane method of housing people and lowers the living standard for, especially, minorities and elderly who cannot afford sufficiently decent housing.
6 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 1/12/2022 12:31:01 AM (No. 1035618)
The house I grew up in had a coal furnace. Never converted to gas even though the house used gas too. I remember mom and dad ordering a load a coal a few times for winter, but not every winter. I remember them burning wood in the coal furnace. We had a wood lot behind our house. Also remember burning bundles of newspaper. We had gas space heaters in a number of rooms. Also remember a few plug-in electric space heaters. Also remember a kerosene space heater. That was sketchy. We stopped using it because of the fumes. I remember many a cold night in the house as a kid. Never saw any other house quite like it.
Everyone in the family was very aware of how flammable things could be. We never had anything flammable near any heater. We never had any accidents. I do remember burning an elbow on a floor vent for the furnace when I was young. I learned my lesson.
Don't blame race for this. Blame ignorance. This was preventable.
12 people like this.
My grandmother's house had steam radiators in every room. She had a fuel tank that held 800 gallons of heating oil. Lovely heaters. No fires just nice warm heat. oh yeah. It was a big house.
6 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 1/12/2022 1:12:21 AM (No. 1035627)
Good grief. Everyone I know occasionally uses space heaters. I have two at our lake cabin...one for a bathroom that’s uncomfortable in cold weather and another for my porch to keep me warm when I smoke a cigar. Mrs. Holliday doesn’t permit lit stogies indoors. Then we have another for the bathroom in our main home.
Space heaters certainly demand safety and respect. I doubt new immigrants are that familiar with that kind of electric appliance. Several years ago in Atlanta some new arrivals didn’t know how to use an electric stove so they put a pan on the floor, lit a fire in it for cooking and burned down a several million dollar apartment building.
6 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 1/12/2022 2:09:24 AM (No. 1035642)
I have used various kinds of space heaters, electric, kerosene and propane my whole life. You gotta use your brain, too. For some, that is a severe challenge.
9 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Rather Read 1/12/2022 2:43:07 AM (No. 1035658)
I have an electric space heater in the bathroom. I like it warmer when I shower. My brother has one in his living room to warm it up more when the nights are cold. My co-worker has one in the office when it gets really cold outside.
Lot of people of all races and classes use space heaters.
7 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
SweetPea3 1/12/2022 4:37:53 AM (No. 1035680)
Inequity? As in, unlike everyone else on the planet, they're too stooopud to operate a space heater?
8 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
mifla 1/12/2022 4:44:44 AM (No. 1035684)
Electricity is cheaper than gas. I use a space heater in my bedroom at night. Has saved me thousands of dollars over the years. Looking for someone to blame, ask Biden why he killed off our energy independence.
7 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
WhamDBambam 1/12/2022 6:44:50 AM (No. 1035728)
Oh, sod off.
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
skacmar 1/12/2022 7:04:35 AM (No. 1035742)
Could cultural differences be to blame here? A cold hi-rise building full of African migrants with big families jammed into small apartments. I doubt that too many of these migrants ever lived in a hi-rise, lived in the cold, or dealt with electric heaters, smoke detectors, or fire doors. People who grew up here with fire doors and smoke detection equipment and should know better disable this stuff all the time. The migrants surely did the same.
5 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
5 handicap 1/12/2022 7:29:43 AM (No. 1035775)
It's not the heater, it's the imbeciles who use them! The shame is that too many innocents die along with the imbecile, who is no great loss.
6 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Strike3 1/12/2022 8:25:53 AM (No. 1035817)
No claim is too outrageous where racism is concerned. City officials don't mind them shooting each other in the street but they need to be compensated for being forced to warm themselves with these dangerous tools of the white man. Get over it you opportunists, stuff happens. If your heater malfunctions, go steal another one.
7 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 1/12/2022 8:46:02 AM (No. 1035837)
NYC just recently is to prohibit gas hookups in the near future. By NBC's Erik Ortiz's logic NYC politicians are inequitable requiring electric heaters.
5 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
MickTurn 1/12/2022 9:02:44 AM (No. 1035857)
Everything causes 'inequity' when it's lied about...get a clue, You all live in a Schifft Hole!
4 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 1/12/2022 10:42:29 AM (No. 1035994)
Probably started by a fire under the dorowat kettle......
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
udanja99 1/12/2022 10:57:06 AM (No. 1036007)
I have one in my bedroom and it’s running right now. And I’m as Eurocentric as can be.
1 person likes this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
padiva 1/12/2022 11:00:12 AM (No. 1036012)
Would it be culturally inappropriate to teach the immigrants how to live in houses, use indoor plumbing, use silverware etc?
If so, put them on a some vacant rural land and the can live/survive in their old culture.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
I hate to burst their bubble but I have seen space heaters in every type of home - from tar paper shacks to multi-million dollar mansions.