The owner of an alleged illegal Allston rooming house that was destroyed in a Tuesday night blaze will be hauled before city inspection and fire officials today, a week after city officials say he was served with a violation for not having working smoke detectors.
The city’s Inspectional Services Department had previously investigated the building at 30 Myrick St. for being an illegal rooming house four years ago, according to city records. ISD Commissioner Buddy Christopher said it was unclear why the department had not followed up a violation report after inspectors could not get into the building in 2012.
“I’m going to have to see why that didn’t happen,” Christopher said. “If an inconsistency was perpetrated here we’ll be the first to admit it. If something needs to be immediately corrected we’ll do that.”
Property owner Guangde Li of West Roxbury will be served with several violations — including never obtaining a legal occupancy permit — at an 8 a.m. hearing today, Christopher said. Li, who also owns multifamily homes in West Roxbury and Waltham, declined to speak with a reporter at his home yesterday.
The fire at Myrick Street displaced 11 people living in the two-family home, and Christopher said Li had been renting out individual rooms, which had deadbolts on the doors. That was evidence Li was operating the home as a rooming house, which requires a sprinkler system and smoke detectors by each sleeping area, Christopher said.
Some of the residents were allowed to recover any belongings that may have survived the fire yesterday.
During an Aug. 16 inspection of the house after a tenant complained about a broken stove and leaking bathrooms, ISD found the house did not have smoke detectors in the first floor hallway, according to reports. Li was cited and told to provide smoke detectors by Sept. 19, Christopher said.
ISD followed up the day of the fire but no one was home, Christopher said, and evidence from the fire indicated Li had not added the detectors. Two tenants told the Herald they never heard a smoke detector go off. Instead, one tenant went through the building with firefighters, pounding on doors and telling the others to get out.
In 2012, the property was investigated by ISD following an anonymous report that the building was an illegal rooming house, Christopher said. But inspectors never entered the home, Christopher said. The inspector cited Li with a “right of entry” violation.
Christopher said he would be meeting with the inspector today to determine what happened in the case, and said he was “concerned” that the building was overcrowded at the time of the fire after a complaint against rooming was made four years ago.
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