Fatal Spring Valley fire leads to inspections; violations found at next-door houses
SPRING VALLEY - As police investigated the fatal fire on Lake Street, Rockland inspectors on Monday found building code violations at nearby houses owned by the owner of the house that burned down.
While police were mum on releasing details on the fire that killed five people, investigators have tentatively determined the cause and origin of the fire to 118 Lake St., Rockland Buildings and Codes Director Edward Markunas said Monday as he led inspections to several other houses on Lake Street.
Fatal fire: 5 dead, including 2 minors, in Spring Valley house fire
Markunas said he doesn't know the details, but that the burned remains of 118 Lake St. had been knocked down for safety reasons.
"The house posed a danger to people in the neighborhood," Markunas said of the building's demolition. "It was too unstable to remain."
How the fire unfolded
On Saturday, the first Spring Valley police officers arrived within two minutes of the fire reported at 4:03 a.m., just before firefighters, police said.
The first responders were confronted by a house engulfed in flames. "Numerous people were able to escape, but despite the rescue efforts of the first responders, three adults and two children tragically passed away due to the fire," police said.
The fire became so intense as flames burst from the house, firefighters were unable to enter the burning structure. Investigators believe fire started on the first floor and caused the second floor to cave in.
Three victims were found on the second floor and two on the first, officials said. Five others were treated at hospitals and one firefighter was treated at the scene for a minor injury. The tenants were from Guatemala.
Neighbors recall fearsome moments
Next door at 120 Lake St., Mark Desrosiers said he and his family were sleeping when 118 Lake St. next door burned down at 4 a.m. Saturday. As families struggled to escape the smoke and flames, one man jumped from the second floor.
"We didn't know about it at first," 19-year-old Desrosiers said Monday, as Rockland County buildings inspectors went through the house his family rents from the man who owned the burned-down structure. "We were sleeping. We didn't hear anything at first. My sister woke us up."
Desrosiers and his five family members rushed outside into the cold morning air, fearing the fire could spread to their home at 120 Lake St. Another family living upstairs also fled the two-family house.
"It was a little scary," Desrosiers said of the fire.
His sister Mary said people were staring in disbelief and some started crying, fearing for loved ones trapped inside the house.
"The fire was so close to us," she said.
Violations at nearby properties
Markunas said the owner Jacob Jeremias will be issued notices of violations for fire and code violations at 120 Lake St., the house behind the building, and one on the property of 118 Lake St. Markunas said Jeremias has 30 days to make repairs or face potentially thousands of dollars in fines.
The Spring Valley Board of Trustees has allowed some landlords to subdivide their land to build additional housing.
Jeremias, the owner of 118 Lake St., the site of the fatal fire, owned two houses on the property and a vacant plot. Jeremias owns numerous properties in the village, including 120 Lake St., and houses behind it.
Jeremias could not be reached for comment. His purported assistant property manager Joel Fisher declined to comment after first denying any role with the property. Fisher met with Markunas and two inspectors for the Building and Codes Office, including former village inspector Jackenton Lavalasse. Officials said the tenants didn't recall ever seeing Fisher.
Building and Codes officials went to the neighborhood after Markunas and County Executive Ed Day took heat for the county not inspecting the burned-down house.
“While the cause, origin, and circumstances of this fire are still under investigation, I directed our Office of Buildings and Codes to inspect all properties owned by Mr. Jeremias and had our Center for Rockland Codes Investigations look into prior violations at the properties as well," Day said. “We are utilizing every tool at our disposal to protect residents.”
Single and two-family homes are not subject to required inspections under New York State law but all tenants in 120 & 122 Lake Street allowed county inspectors to enter and inspect.
Under state law, three-family homes and above, commercial, and places of assembly are subject to mandatory inspections, which fall under building and codes jurisdiction.
The state deputized the county to take over Spring Valley's Building Department functions in November 2021 after years of dysfunction and lack of adequate enforcement. The county started inspections and prosecutions in February 2022.
Earlier, based on pressure from elected officials and firefighters, including the Rockland Illegal Housing Task Force, the state first assigned monitors to oversee the administration of the building departments in Ramapo and Spring Valley. When enforcement continued to lag in Spring Valley, partially for the lack of inspectors and poor government leadership, the state deputized Rockland to take over.
On Monday, Markunas and Lavalasse found a good number of violations in 120 and 122 Lake and houses on the nearby properties. The violations included electrical issues, mold, lack of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and other deficiencies such as single-room occupancies. Inspectors said they are finalizing the number of violations found.
Desrosiers and his cousin Lydena said they make their own repairs. They said they complain to Jeremias but the problems go unfixed. One radiator doesn't produce heat and there are electrical concerns, such as one light sparking when the string was pulled, they said. They pay $2,550 a month in rent.
"When we need repairs in the house he doesn't come to fix anything," Lydena Desrosiers said.
Markunas told them the inspections were being done because "we want to make sure you guys are safe."
Markunas said a September 2021 title search of inspections done by Spring Valley of 118 Lake St. revealed 14 code violations on the property, which were corrected in November 2021. A second title search by the village in June 2022 reported no violations, he said.
Markunas said he couldn't say what if any violations were at the building that burned down. He said the investigation might provide answers.
Lavalasse said the violations found were not the worst since he got hired by Building and Codes. He's inspected houses with the dining and living rooms areas illegally divided by walls into separate bedrooms.
The fire is "still an active investigation for us at this point in time," Police Chief Richard Oleszczuk said. "We released all we are going to release for now; we will be meeting regularly with the investigators to get updates and to see what else, if anything, should be released."
Anyone with information is asked to call the Spring Valley Police Detective Phil Fantasia at (845) 721-9562.
Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Spring Valley fatal fire: Violations found at next-door houses
