NYC ramps up inspections of self

May 26, 2023

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City housing officials are ramping up inspections of apartment buildings to ensure compliance with a fire safety law requiring “self-closing doors” — more than year after a horrific Bronx blaze killed 17 people, including eight children.

The Jan. 9, 2022, inferno was later blamed on a malfunctioning electric space heater and fire safety doors that failed to close properly.

The city Department of Housing Preservation and Development this year has now adopted new rules saying they’ll target 300 problem buildings a year for inspections of self-closing doors.

The inspections will be based on a criteria that includes: having at least one complaint with the agency in the prior three years regarding a self-closing door; buildings with more than five heat complaints; buildings with at least one fire-safety related violation; and buildings that have failed to file an annual boiler report.

The law requiring maintenance of self-closing doors has been on the books since 2018 and strengthened by the City Council last year following the deadly Bronx blaze.

“Self-closing doors keep New Yorkers safe and we’ll continue to do everything in our power to make sure buildings are in compliance with our policies, including increasing enforcement under this new rule,” HPD said in a statement Sunday.

HPD, during its routine inspections, already checks all apartment doors and any public area doors to see if they automatically close in compliance with the fire code.

The new program is aimed at finding issues at buildings for self closing doors specifically, with inspections to start soon.

“The rationale for this requirement is to ensure that in case of a fire in an apartment, smoke will not spread to hallways and other apartments due to a door that is left open and does not self-close. Owners are responsible for inspecting these doors and maintaining them in good repair. Required self-closing doors must close and latch on their own without having to be pulled shut manually,” a summary of the rule says.

The law and rules exclude from targeted inspection buildings already under administrative orlegal oversight and monitored for potentially hazardous conditions, including faulty self-closing doors.

HPD officials are encouraging property owners to check the doors in both apartments and public areas regularly to make sure they swing all the way shut, latch properly when closed — and are not propped open.

Tenants are being encouraged to report to their landlord if a door isn’t working property so it can be fixed right away.