Media Contact: Randolph Yunker - (516) 571-2490

(Mineola, NY) "The tragedy surrounding the deaths of several New York City firefighters on Sunday, who were unable to escape a room in a Bronx apartment because of an illegal wall that blocked access to a hallway, shows how property owners can endanger themselves and others when they fail to conform to existing building codes," stated Nassau County Assessor Harvey Levinson.

Since Assessor Levinson first embarked on his campaign to rid Nassau County of illegal boarding and rooming houses last May, many of the "Calls for Service Reports" forwarded to him by local fire districts and police precincts revealed the presence of "temporary" walls of sheetrock or blankets in a number of single-family zoned homes. According to Chief Joseph Pascarella of the Westbury Fire District, he has witnessed a number of instances where firefighters' masks became entangled in ropes and sheets that partitioned the living quarters of illegal tenants. Another fire district report revealed that firefighters were forced to navigate through a series of narrow corridors created by makeshift rooms of sheetrock.

"There is a clear and present danger to firefighters and EMTs who respond to calls at these illegal boarding homes," stated Chief Pascarella. "Unfortunately, we never know what we'll discover when we arrive at one of these illegal homes. But one thing is certain; there usually is only one way in and one way out!"

"Clearly, the unscrupulous profiteers in our County cannot be allowed to place our brave firefighters and police officers or those desperate families who are seeking shelter in an "affordable" living space in jeopardy," stated Assessor Levinson. "That is why I am calling on the Towns, Cities and Villages to coordinate their building inspection efforts with local fire districts and police precincts and act swiftly and decisively on these observed violations. I believe that a uniformed reporting procedure should be adopted by all municipalities and that violations be corrected within a specified time-period. Penalties could range from double the gain of the income derived by the illegal units or, in extreme cases, the building should be shutdown."

To help local municipalities obtain "eye-witness" descriptions of the illegal and unsafe conditions that were observed at a particular property, Assessor Levinson suggested that all police precincts and fire districts fill out a uniformed incident report that can be forwarded to the proper municipality for further action. In the Town of North Hempstead, police officers and fire districts file a "Violation of the Code" report in the form of a deposition or a "Fire Department Complaint Form" that is forwarded to the Building Inspector or Public Safety Department for further investigation.

"If government is going to be successful in dealing forcefully and effectively in addressing the problem of illegal and unsafe multi-family apartments, we must continue to work together in a cooperative and non-partisan manner at all levels of government," concluded Assessor Levinson. "We have to work preventively to ensure the safety of our heroic police and firefighters as well as the residents of Nassau County."