Fire Deaths in Saranac Lake

When I came to work that October morning in 1995, I couldn’t drive down Depot Street because of the fire in which sixteen year old Paul Schlitt died, along with his dog. That seems like a long time ago, but it’s really right now. The burned-out house where he died still stands today, a sad monument to the village’s inability to effectively deal with the enforcement of building codes in sub-standard housing units.

Almost thirty years later, we have another sad monument on Elm Street where Michael Simmons recently died in his wheelchair. His friend and neighbor described how her young sons, at home during the fire, noticed smoke coming into their apartment and escaped. No mention of hearing any smoke alarm.

The village board has an overdue obligation to get it right. Regarding young Paul Schlitt’s death, here’s an excerpt from a July 21, 2014 (nineteen years later) editorial in the Daily Enterprise: “In 1998, a legal settlement required Mr. Dukett to bring all his properties up to code by Dec. 16 of that year, but no one ever made that stick – even though by 2002 there had been several more fires in his cruddy buildings.”

Whether due to poor legal advice or a lack of will or both, the village has been unable to put muscle behind the enforcement of basic building codes. We’re not talking about ugly blighted buildings that need siding and paint, although we have plenty of those. We’re talking, for example, about a lack of smoke detectors – in other words, the basic life support required by law that we all take for granted. The worst of these properties need to be condemned and taken from their owners. Period.

If a landlord cannot show the Code Enforcement Officer that there is a working smoke detector in any given apartment, that building needs to be condemned and the tenants removed. Property rights? Privacy? Sorry, but I have never seen a rental agreement or lease that did not allow a landlord to enter an apartment with 24 hours’ notice. And that’s for such things as a leaking drain pipe, as opposed to what we are addressing here: matters of life and death. NY State rental law allows for two inspections per year by landlords of tenants’ premises.

The village might have to pass specific laws. Okay, so let’s get going. How about a law which requires all rental property to be licensed. This is common throughout the U.S.  A quick and cursory internet search shows that there are rental property permitting or licensing requirements in these New York municipalities: Smithtown, Hempstead, Plattsburgh, Babylon, NYC, Watertown, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Huntington, Newburgh, Brookhaven, Ithaca and Greece. Amherst requires that property managers be licensed.

One- and two-family and multi-family dwellings are licensed to operate as a rental. In order to receive a rental license or permit, the property must 1) be registered and 2) be inspected. The inspection could be done by the Village CEO, but inspections are also done by a state licensed, registered Home Inspector, annually, or bi-annually. Make the expense the landlord’s. That keeps the Code Enforcement Officer free for – yes, enforcement. Another law might be one which makes landlords personally liable for costs in the event of condemnation and demolition. That way, an uninsured property destroyed in a fire, as is the situation currently with 11 Elm Street, does not have to be a taxpayer burden. Mortgage lenders require property insurance. Maybe the village ought to consider that as well, despite difficulty in enforcement. It could be part of the licensing procedure. That way, again, the burden on taxpayers is reduced.

All incremental monitoring and compliance costs to further safe housing must be fully funded by the landlords. This requirement is not onerous or expensive. Penalties for non-compliance, however, must be painful because tenants’ lives are being put at risk. Penalties could be assessed at dollars/unit/month or annum.

I was co-owner of an apartment building in Saranac Lake for a couple years. The first thing we did was to install a hard-wired smoke detection and CO detection system. It was not expensive. The days of battery-operated smoke detectors are over. After the Elm Street fire, the landlord went to his other five buildings to install more crappy battery devices. Sure, that’s better than nothing, but it’s time to sunset these “grandfathered” rental units and require the real thing.

The Code Enforcement Officer needs to be able to issue citations anytime, just like a police officer. Some issues, like, say, a leaking roof, would have a defined time to reach compliance. Severe concerns like an inoperable sprinkler system or non-functioning smoke detectors must be immediate. If the property owner fails to take the proper steps to reach code compliance, monetary assessments and penalties must be imposed, and eventually the property can and will be condemned by the village.

Then there is the issue of empty buildings in the village. There are several of these dilapidated structures, once rental units, now unoccupied for years without signs of repair or maintenance of any kind. Does the village plan to wait until a child is killed in one of these prior to taking action?

What village do you want to live in? The one with rental permitting and inspections, or the one with burned-out monuments to those killed in fires? Mike Simmons was a nice guy, so far as I knew him. He didn’t have to die that way. His neighbor (with the two children) is a hard-worker who grew-up here. How close were her children to being trapped by the fire? The village has unfortunately, through inaction, treated these people as second class citizens. If you live in an apartment in Saranac Lake, you do not receive the benefit of basic tenant rights as defined by law. It is time for that to change.

As I write this, the landlord is selling his properties as fast as possible. He wants to get out of town, with his money. Thus far, he is succeeding. Four properties are under contract, Elm Street is on the way to condemnation, and 189 Kiwassa Road is in negotiations. We all know the players. How does the village plan to establish safe housing at these properties? Is it simply a matter of saying, “Oh, they’ll do a good job?” Or is it more like, “This is Saranac Lake, they have to do a good job.” If it’s the former, the next fatality might be on your shoulders. If it’s the latter, you can now make a difference. The new owners, at the very least, must be required to install hard-wired smoke and CO detection.