New York – A Brooklyn woman was one of 10 people injured in an apartment fire after her balcony exit was blocked by the sukkah erected on her balcony.
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Daniella Livy Stauber , 53, the divorced mother of three adult children, remains unconscious and on a respirator at a local hospital, the New York Daily News reported. The fire started early Monday morning in the Borough Park neighborhood.
Liby was unable to jump out a window of her second-floor apartment due to the metal bars covering them, and the sukkah blocked her escape from the balcony. She reportedly shouted for help while waiting to be rescued.
She works as a babysitter for neighborhood children, her ex-husband told the newspaper.
WNBC reports that the Department of Buildings issued a violation for obstructing the fire escape with a Sukkah. The DOB said it prevented egress.
About 135 firefighters fought the blaze and got it under control in about 90 minutes.
Very SAD!
Liby is a devoted Babysitter and Bobby to the kids she’s babysitting.
May she recover soon!
It’s high time the Jewish community should start to adhere to building code laws in NYC, there is a reason why they exist. Yes we need a sukkah, but don’t build them in fire escapes. the city should fine every owner that does it..
Stupid article sukkeh is on 3rd floor and she lived on second floor nothing related
Although, totally wrong of putting Sukkah on fire escape,
1) I was there at fire (live in immediate area) and this woman was floor below the fire escape that had the sukkah. She was also on the other side of the building, to the back and not the front, where the sukkah was. So, this didn’t cause her not being able to escape. What did cause here, and a next door neighbor told me that he heard her screams but couldn’t do anything, was her having a gate on her fire escape window.
2) I believe, although may be wrong about it (so don’t all pounce at me at once) that this building isn’t required by law to have a fire escape. There are many 4 floor multiple dwelling unit buildings that don’t have them.
3) Perhaps what the article means with preventing escape, is that the people that went to the roof instead of down, was because of the sukkah (at least that is what I heard at tthe scene.
It looks like this fire escapes were built to be a fire escape/porch either way putting up a sukkah is not the end of the world if they would make a door on both sides to give access for such a situation
Most of all, she should have a Refuah Sh’laima.
This is very confusing. I’m reading this story over and over and I see that it mentions there were bars on the second floor windows. It also mentioned something about a succa on the fire escape as a reason she couldn’t jump.
Then, I’m looking at the picture and I see that the succa is on a higher floor then the 2nd.
So, what is the real story here? If she’s on the second floor why should she have to go up to the third floor or even the fourth floor to be able to jump out of a window?
Let’s not just take these stories as halocha l’moshe m’Sinai when there’s clearly questions.
1) AFAIK, any building more than 3 stories must have a second means of egress (second stairs in building, or fire escape).
2) The picture clearly shows a balcony with a fire escape stairs attached – ie designed for use as a balcony (presumably with succa use in mind). If you build a succa on such a balcony / fire escape, you would just need to still keep the fire escape accessible – a door(way) at each stair entry should be good enough.
3) Gates on windows must have a keyed lock to be able to open in an emergency, which the FDNY would be able to also open if needed.
May she have a Refuah Shelima Bekorov.
Whether or not in this particular case her rescue was impeded by Succot on the fire escape, the bottom line is that fire escapes should never be blocked.
Yes, it’s a challenge in the city but many of us carry our stuff downstairs and manage.
I live in the building and I like to see how everyone is judging here without knowing facts. First of all this photo is from the front of the building and where the fire started was in the back. This lady has 2 porches both to the front of the house and which one did not have a succah and not even the 3rd and 4th floor in the back had succahs. And if the fire started in the kitchen how was she even able to escape from the fire escape if the fire spread so quickly. And by the way there was working smoke detectors blaring away when I heard people saying there was no working ones. Please judge people favorably.