Displaced victims of Flatbush fi re call for relief
BY BEN VERDE
Kim Williams was at home
in bed on Nov. 3 when she received
a notifi cation on her
phone that there was a fi re
nearby. She prayed that the
people affected would be okay,
before going back to sleep.
Soon after, the Citizen App
sent out an update with the
affected address: 222 Lenox
Road, her apartment building.
She jumped out of bed, got
dressed, and ran downstairs
with her neighbors.
Over 150 fi refi ghters responded
to the blaze between
Rogers and Nostrand avenues,
eventually extinguishing
a fi re that raged primarily
in between the roof and
the top fl oor. Though the inferno
spared Flatbush Congressmember
Yvette Clarke’s
ground fl oor offi ce, it rendered
close to 24 apartments completely
uninhabitable.
Displaced residents were
put up in hotels by the Red
Cross, but their vouchers are
set to expire this week, and
many tenants say they’ll be
forced into the city’s shelter
system.
Tenant Kimberly Scott
fears she and her son will be
moved to a homeless shelter
by the middle of this week. She
has been living out of a hotel
in South Williamsburg since
the fi re but will have to leave
on Nov. 10.
In an interview with
Brooklyn Paper, she accused
the building’s manager, Pinnacle
COURIER LIFE, N 22 OVEMBER 12-18, 2021
Management, of being
unresponsive.
“It’s just been a nightmare,”
Scott said. “We’re being
treated like we caused it,
like it’s our fault.”
Scott and other tenants are
calling on Pinnacle to do more
in assisting the displaced residents,
some of whom lost all
their possessions in the fi re.
“They have multiple properties,
why are we not being
put in other properties?” asked
tenant TJ Walker. “That’s
their obligation — this wasn’t
our fault, this wasn’t a negligent
fi re.”
That night, fi refi ghters
broke open the window to
Walker’s sixth fl oor apartment
to gain access to the fi re,
leaving a gaping hole in the
building. On Monday, the hole
remained open, which tenants
say has allowed access from
the elements, pests, and scavengers
seeking to steal from
the damaged apartments.
“It’s open season on my
apartment right now,” Walker
said. “Anybody could go in —
animals, elements, you name
it.”
Multiple tenants say they
suspect the fi re was a result of
work being performed on the
roof by the management company.
A spokesperson for Pinnacle
Management declined
to discuss the cause of the
fi re, which remains under investigation,
according to the
FDNY.
Pinnacle, owned by billionaire
Joel Weiner, has an extensive
portfolio of buildings
throughout Brooklyn and the
Bronx, and a long history of legal
troubles and disputes with
tenants. It has been the subject
of criminal investigations
by the Manhattan district attorney
and has been accused
by tenants of violating rent
stabilization laws.
The company’s rep told
Brooklyn Paper Pinnacle is
working to complete repairs
so that tenants may return to
their apartments.
“Management has been
working every day to complete
repairs and will continue to
coordinate with the Department
of Buildings so the remaining
tenants can return to
their homes as quickly as possible,”
the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, displaced tenants
are looking out for each
other. Williams, the president
of the building’s tenant association,
has worked to fi nd
food donations while gas is
out in the building, and keep
her neighbors out of the shelter
system if possible, though
time is running out.
“Management hasn’t given
any assistance to the people
who were displaced,” she said.
“They’re not trying to take
ownership that it was their
fault.”
Kimberly Scott and Shana-Kay McDougall, two displaced tenants of 222
Lenox Road. Photo by Ben Verde
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