Posted on 04/01/2015 4:46:34 AM PDT by thackney
It would sure be nice to have some reporting that would actually look into the this, it all sounds vague and mysterious, when it shouldn’t.
The apartment building has gas water heaters and gas appliances, and not gas going to it? Gas taps are discovered, etc. and inspectors just keep playing dumb and incapable of busting the obvious illegalities taking place for so long?
This is weird, I would loved to have observed the inspector as he played games with this. Some incompetence or worse, is a part of this story.
Explanation to the inspector could have been that all equipment is already installed prior to new gas service being opened.
Happens all the time where buildings are fully built and waiting months for the valve to be officially turned (while the owner is losing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent each month).
The inspectors don’t give a damn about your finances and every month they dawdle puts you in a HUGE hole.
Not hard to see why someone would turn the valve themselves. Especially an immigrant fellow with “unconventional” loans for the project.
This doesn’t seem to be a one time deal of someone doing something, it seems to have been an ongoing drama and of an apartment building getting all the gas they needed, even though the inspectors knew they didn’t have gas.
Something is going on with those inspectors to allow this game playing to go on, without them doing anything, inspectors are not supposed to be idiots, and they have awesome power.
“Con Edison workers discovered in early August that a gas line for Sushi Park had been tapped to supply fuel to the tenants in that building.”
“That siphoning-——was intended as a stopgap until the utility approved the use of a bigger line that could serve the whole five-story building”
“But the investigators now believe that, possibly for more than a year, gas had been redirected from pipes coming into two of the buildings that were destroyed.—possibility that the siphoning apparatus had been dismantled or somehow hidden from Con Edison’s inspectors on Thursday afternoon, then restored after they left.”
“New York City officials said that Con Edison’s inspectors left 121 Second Avenue around 2:45 p.m., after finding fault with plumbing work in the basement but no signs of leaking gas or other safety concerns. They deemed the building unprepared to receive gas through the bigger pipe, so they left the head of that pipe locked.”
“Mr. Kim said he told the police that the manager had noticed a black pipe that ran along the ceiling of the basement, then up toward the apartments above.
“sketched the location of the pipe on a floor plan of the basement for the police—The overhead pipe clearly was not connected to the gas pipe that served his restaurant, which was the only pipe through which Con Edison was sending gas to 121 Second Avenue.”
“He said the manager could not tell where the pipe began because it extended out of a section of the basement that only the landlord had access to. But he said he assumed that it connected to the gas pipe serving the building next door, which was also owned by a company controlled by Ms. Hrynenko.
Otherwise, Mr. Kim wondered aloud, where did the tenants who had moved in upstairs obtain the gas that fueled their water heaters and stoves?”
LOL. In my mom's building, there is a black pipe that runs along the basement ceiling and then upward. It is the supply line for fuel oil from the street to the oil tank which is located in the back of the basement. Mr Kim knows not what he speaks of. He's basking in his 15 minutes.
Tenants have a tendency of being know-it-alls about the landlord's business and cause more problems than there needs to be.
In general landlord’s are sleazy people, and in this case, people died.
This lack of oversight by the city surprises me because it seems pretty casual for such a big time criminal issue, where I am at, if the gas company puts a lock on your meter, then you have to make the formal repair and then no matter how simple the repair, now the entire system has to be put on test and the inspector sign off on it, that makes it tough on the customer because any tiny leak (s), no matter how tiny or where it is on the old system, now has to be tracked down by the plumber and also repaired.
I don’t know what our city department would do as far as investigating and penalizing the party befitting from the tapping into the line, but my guess is that it would be severe, and since all of this involves the same owner of all the property involved, I don’t think that she and her records would have escaped some heavy investigating.
Instead, a plumber simply removed it and that was it.
“On Aug. 6, a Con Ed meter reader smelled gas and discovered a “strange-looking attachment with hoses coming out of it” plugged into a gas main that was supposed to serve only the restaurant, said spokesman O’Brien.
The device appeared to distribute gas to upper floor apartments, and Con Ed shut off the gas “due to a hazardous condition.” They ordered that the device be removed, officials said.
Nine days later a licensed plumber, Andrew Trombettas, certified that the problem had been fixed, and Con Ed restored the gas, officials said.
The certification was filed with the Buildings Department, officials said. Neither Con Ed nor the department were required to follow up after it was certified by the plumber, officials said. Trombettas did not return calls.”
Ping to 46.
the whole thing reeeek$
You can have the job self-certified by a master plumber instead of an inspection for more $$$. People often do this because the inspection takes forever in NYC and the inspectors play games to make work for themselves.
If someone really wants to do work against code, there is nothing that can be done to stop them until someone reports it or there is an incident.
The plumber could have done everything properly, stamped the form and the owner’s illegal guys can came back and undo everything the next hour. Same thing can happen with a city inspector.
I’m a master plumber, a city inspector still makes me do what I described, and then he inspects my work and that the ENTIRE system is meeting the high pressure standard required to pass inspection, and then he releases me and the gas company to restore service.
As far as the incredible criminal act of the plumbing involved in illegally supplying gas to an entire apartment building by the owner, I can only speculate, and I speculate that it and she would have been seriously investigated here, not just ignored, as they did.
All that happened in this case when they found out that the owner was illegally supplying his apartment building with gas, was to act as though it was merely some minor repair that needed to be done, remove the connection and let life go on.
People died, lives are impacted, homes destroyed. and I think that this is a complicated tale of incompetence and criminality, involving a number of people.
“It’s not what you know. It’s what you can prove.”
The point is that it was all ignored, there was no investigation into this very serious crime that was taking place, and it all blew up on them all, the plumbing contractors, the city, the owner, the victims.
“Investigators are gathering up gas main and building records in an escalating criminal probe of what caused the fatal building explosion last week in the East Village.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office and the city Department of Investigation have begun collecting records from the city buildings department and Con Edison, according to sources familiar with the probe.
“Today it’s a full-fledged criminal investigation and we are complying with all requests for information,” said Philip O’Brien, a Con Edison spokesman.”
“On Monday, the Daily News discovered plastic bags filled with what appeared to be shredded documents on the front porch of Hrynenko’s home in Rockland County. There was no indication of what the documents were or whether they related to the building.
Late Monday, DOI investigators showed up at her home and loaded the bags to a truck.”
“Nine days later a licensed plumber, Andrew Trombettas, certified that the problem had been fixed”
“Trombettas did not return calls”
How do you know that the people died because of the landlord? There's an inspector and ConED involved. Point your finger at them also. Inspectors are not the brightest bulbs. The landlord was doing an improvement to the building. The Mayor of NYC has no proof that the landlord was "siphoning" gas. I wonder if he's confusing gas with gasoline. Minor detail in his brain.
You know all those little people who have a minimum wage job and complain that their bosses are cheap and won't give them raises?
Same thing here.
You know those occupy wall street people? those are the same tenants in those buildings. The tenants who scream the loudest pay the lowest rent and are quick to get the government involved which causes delays with everything.
Ansell I hope one day you will become a landlord with tenants. For now, I'm sorry that your boss is sleazy.
BTW, I know that landlord. She's a very hard working lady. Worked very hard all her life. I also know the other three landlords whose buildings were damaged. Very nice people who bend over backward to please others. Mom-n-Pop people.
I didn’t say that they died because of the owner, although it is almost certain..
I don’t have a boss, and I know landlords as a tenant, a maintenance man and supervisor, roving maintenance, property manager, apartment manager, and as a long time plumbing contractor, and socially and as family members.
I know them in all ways.
Generally they are sleazy people, that is why I dismiss most of them over the phone as a contractor and refuse to accept them as customers, and I only accept the small number who are decent people who care about their properties and tenants, and who want quality work done.
That building is full of minimum wage people, what do the units go for? How was she getting gas to the building all this time and through the winter?
Did you read post 52? why is she shredding bags full of her records?
Right now ConEd is busy covering their asses and accusing the landlord. Funny they haven't disclosed the name of the inspector.
Here's another tidbit. Why in the world would a landlord "siphon" gas for the tenants? The landlord would be doing them a favor and thus tenants shouldn't complain if they were getting free gas.
BTW, Gas in apartments is used only for cooking - oven and stove. Many tenants opt for electric stoves and microwave ovens nowadays. So tell me why would they need gas at all?
So far, the finger pointing should be at ConEd and not the landlord.
Your posts are not making sense, the tenants are minimum wage riff raff, yet they are replacing their gas stoves?
That isn’t credible, what kind of heating, water heaters, and stoves did the apartments actually have, and how was the owner supplying them with gas, if there was no connection since at least August, and perhaps for more than a year?
And what recent inspection and new meter are you talking about?
How and why was this apartment building being neglected for so long by the owner who is shredding all her records?
While you seem to be describing things that you are just making up, if the connection was how you described, the plumber would have just made his adjustments and called for reinspection that same day, or the next at the latest.
Besides who said anything about it having failed inspection anyway? That isn’t the story.
Actually, gas is not needed in a building because it is only used for cooking. Fuel oil is used for heat and hot water.
Some landlords have started converting to heating with gas instead of fuel oil. Chances are that she was in the process of doing this.
She was improving the existing gas line. A one inch pipe to a two inch pipe. The building was receiving gas through the old one inch pipe which was still active during the inspection. That pipe was not turned off by the inspector. The new two inch pipe was not activated because it failed inspection due to a minor measurement.
The building where the sushi place was, that building was empty during renovations. New tenants moved in last August. Kitchen stove was probably electric so no gas is needed in the apartments.
The other building had tenants who lived there forever so their rents were quite low. Figure between $200 and $750 a month. Rent Controlled and Rent Stabilized apartments.
As to the shredded paper. Seriously? LOL. If someone is doing something shady, do you think they would have paperwork about it? Seriously. Think about it. Usually those deals are paperless and cash only.
Come to my house right now and you will find 4 bags of shredded paper which I haven’t yet taken to be recycled. It’s tax time. One shreds paperwork one doesn’t need anymore and protects oneself from identity theft.
You are just making things up, you don’t know anything about that building.
You don’t know why they needed gas, or why they were using gas, or who the tenants were, or what the units cost, or anyting about the gas lines and connections and meters and inspections, or lack of them, or the contractors, or how the water was heated or the rooms heated, or anything.
You are lying, you have tried making all kinds of claims, even that the tenants were taking it on themselves to replace their gas stoves and ovens with electric, meaning that they all have 220v, in their kitchens.
You are just creating things out of your imagination, even details about the gas line, things that don’t make sense to this master plumber and plumbing contractor.
Since this is a criminal investigation we will be learning the details, but you are just making things up.
What does that even mean? And why do you say such things as no gas being needed at all, but that she was trying to replace a 1" gas line with a 2" gas line, while the poverty stricken tenants are converting to electric stoves on their own according to you, and somehow find 220volts already there?
In response to your post #56, it is obvious you do not know all the details. Thus I will forgive you for not understanding my posts since you are not up to date. Then again the report is from The New York Times which is not very factual. LOL.
In NYC each building has a boiler. This one boiler supplies heat and hot water to all the tenants in the building. If the boiler breaks down, all tenants are without heat or hot water.
In NYC a tenant does not replace their stoves or refrigerators when they break down. It is the landlord’s responsibility. Thus the riff raffs don’t need to spend a penny for new appliances!! How cool is that?!!
The landlord has just finished renovating the entire building. How does that fall under neglect in your book?
About the inspection by ConEd. There was an inspection at 2pm that afternoon. At 3:15 pm the building blew up. There was no time to fix the failed inspection. ALSO! In NYC, a reinspection does not happen overnight. Sometimes landlords have to wait a month for that to happen. Meanwhile, the building inspectors are there daily giving the landlord violations.
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