(Updated: 5 p.m.) As a wrecking claw tore into a fire-ravaged building Friday, officials sought to figure out how it fell through the cracks of a program meant to keep apartments up to code.
The city ordered the emergency demolition of 1255 Chapel St. Friday morning after an overnight fire gutted the three-story apartment building. Eleven people lived there, fire officials said. Thanks to a heroic tenant, everyone escaped alive.
Cherry Hill demolition company tore down the old mansion Friday afternoon: Click on the play arrow to watch.
Meanwhile, officials sought clues as how the blaze began. At this point, the fire is not considered suspicious, said Fire Marshal Joe Cappucci. It was called in at 8:11 p.m. Thursday as a mattress fire.
Was the building up to code?
Officials said they don’t know: The apartment building got missed by the city’s Residential Licensing program. Under the program, landlords must get inspections every two years on all rental properties with two or more units — enabling city inspectors to eliminate hazards like dangerous electrical contraptions before someone gets hurt.
The program is in its third year, meaning all properties should have been inspected at least once by now.
The homes at 1255 Chapel St. were never inspected as part of the program, said the city’s building chief, Andy Rizzo. The omission came due to an error by the city’s Livable Cities Initiative office, he said.
The mix-up came as the city sought to track down the owner of the building. The building was home to the former Schatz Furrier, owned by Chapel West activist Evelyn Schatz.
Schatz was “the heart and soul” of the neighborhood, Rizzo said. She’s pictured at left in foreground with Deputy City Clerk Sally Brown, in a photo collage rescued after the blaze. She died in 2003. The property is now owned by Schatz’s estate, which is being handled by attorney Ralph Marcarelli. Marcarelli remains in the hospital after suffering chest pains due to smoke inhalation last night, friends said.
Marcarelli’s address is on Wooster Place. The city, however, sent him notices requesting inspection to Wooster Street, Rizzo said. The letters bounced. The city never caught up with Marcarelli — who has been a well-known figure in New Haven civic life for decades — so inspectors never got to the building, Rizzo said.
“It was a mix-up,” Rizzo said, “an honest mistake” by LCI.
Under the residential licensing program, landlords can face penalties if they don’t get their proper license. They’re supposed to be responsible for having an inspection done. Rizzo said he would not pursue penalizing the owner, because the city had a responsibility to reach him, too.
“The culpability goes all around,” Rizzo said.
If the city had done an inspection, it would have known the answer to a question Rizzo tried to answer: Was the home an illegal rooming house?
Several people in the neighborhood described it as a rundown property that attracted tenants who weren’t the best neighbors. Rizzo said he arrived at the scene under the impression that it was an illegal rooming house, meaning people who weren’t related were living communally. At the scene, he heard evidence refuting that claim: he learned that there were seven apartments in the building, with a possible eighth in the former furrier store.
The city doesn’t know what the legal occupancy of the building is, Rizzo said. In 1986, the owner got permission to build an apartment building over the former furrier, but the number of apartments wasn’t specified.
The city won’t know for sure how many apartments were in the building, because it was unsafe to enter after the fire, Rizzo said.
The center of the building collapsed in the blaze, making it impossible to reach the second and third floors.
At this point, Rizzo said, his focus is on moving forward.
“The main thing is, nobody got hurt, and the building has to come down.”
A Tinderbox
The building dates back to 1800. It’s made almost entirely of old wood, without modern-day “fire stops” in the walls, which have been included in construction since World War II, Cappucci said. Without those fire barriers, the wood “acts like kindling” when it ignites.
The flames began in the center of the first floor, Cappucci said. They caused the whole center of the building to collapse. The walls, which were made with asbestos siding, remained standing.
Firefighters kept watch into the afternoon Friday to see if flames would erupt in the still-smoldering pile of rubble.
Rizzo said he expected the building to be razed by evening. Unlike in previous disputes, the city has come to an agreement with the landlord on demolition, Rizzo said. Schatz’s estate hired the demo company; the city is overseeing the work.
Cappucci said the investigation will continue into what started the fire. An accelerant-sniffing dog went through the house Thursday night and found nothing, he said.
The Next Step?
Meanwhile, a nearby landowner scoped out the property for possible development plans.
Matthew Oristano, a business partner of Joel Schiavone, poked around the site. Through an LLC, they own four nearby properties on the block. They were interested in purchasing 1255 Chapel, said Oristano: They had even hired an appraiser to look at the property. The inside was not in the best shape.
“It needed some love,” Oristano said. He said he and Schiavone were looking at it as a possible renovation project. Now, they’re rethinking their options.
Brian McGrath, general manager of the Chapel West Special Services District, said he hopes for some new development on the block.
He said he’d like to see a mix of retail, residential and office space.
“We’re looking to see downtown density here,” he said. “Something big. Something to bring people walking” through the area.
First, thank God no one ended up in the morgue.
Now some questions:
1) How can Rizzo not know how many apartments, legal or illegal, were being rented at this address? Just ask Marcarelli, or the eleven displaced tenants. And the city tax rolls list the property as a six-family, btw.
2) Was there a working fire system at the property. Code would have required hard-wired smoke detectors, and a fire box tied into the fire department.
3) In a move that could have cost many lives, did city officials look the other way over the years because of Schatz' and Marcarelli's political connections?
4) "In 1986, he owner got permission to build... but the number of apartments wasn't specified?" Are you kidding me? No building permits, no drawings, no zoning application?
5) Marcarelli is a well-known attorney and in the phone book. If Rizzo wants to make that lame "Wooster Street - Wooster Place" excuse, it will say a lot about the current administration if they don't FIRE HIM.
Wake up people. The main thing isn't that no one got hurt. The main thing is that people well could have died because the old school way of doing business still persists in New Haven.
The facts of this case deserve a full investigation, lessons need to be learned, and those that skirted proper procedures should be held accountable.
What if a firefighter had lost his or her life last night?