Lawsuits Alle ‘Shameful’ Negligence Before Fatal 2019 Fire, Asks $ 300 Million From Homeowner, DC

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The families of two killed in the August 2019 townhouse fire in northwestern DC have filed wrongful death lawsuits totaling $ 300 million against the owner and DC authorities, alleging a pattern surprisingly negligent in the months leading up to the fire.

The families of two killed in the August 2019 townhouse fire in northwestern DC have filed wrongful death lawsuits totaling $ 300 million against the owner and DC authorities, alleging a pattern surprisingly negligent in the months leading up to the fire.

Both lawsuits were filed by lawyers representing the estates of Fitsum Kebede, 40, and Yafet Solomen, 9, both of whom died after the fire that broke out on August 18, 2019 in the basement of 708. , Kennedy Street. NW, which had been converted into a makeshift rooming house without a permit.

The owner, James Walker, was indicted by a DC grand jury in January 2020 with second degree murder and manslaughter in the deaths of Kebede and Solomen. The proceedings in this case have been blocked due to the coronavirus pandemic. Walker, who has pleaded not guilty, is due in court for a status hearing in October.

Both lawsuits were filed on August 13; the other, on August 17, names Walker as a defendant, along with nine identified employees of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, two appointed employees of the DC Fire and EMS Department, and a dozen other unidentified employees of the DC. district.

The lawsuits allege that not all of the defendants have acted on repeated complaints by a DC police officer who warned of serious breaches of the code at the townhouse.

DCRA is responsible for regulating construction and commercial activity in DC

The lawsuits also name DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC Attorney General Karl Racine as accused, alleging that the district violated Kebede and Solomen’s civil rights by not properly training building inspectors or investigating the conditions. dangerous in rental properties, which the lawsuit describes as “nothing less than disgraceful negligence and a flagrant violation” of District duties.

A spokeswoman for Bowser’s office said the district generally does not comment on pending litigation and referred the investigation to DCRA and the fire department. A spokeswoman for Racine’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuits provide tragic new details about the fire.

Solomen, the 9-year-old boy, lived with his mother in a small windowless room in the basement of 708 Kennedy. Kebede had his own little room that was 5 1/2 by 8 feet.

“In order to pack as many paying tenants into the property as possible,” Walker divided parts of the townhouse into separate, smaller rooms with drywall and two-by-four boards, and passed in extension cords. through holes drilled in the walls, according to a lawsuit.

The half-dozen other tenants living in the townhouse were impoverished and “desperate,” a suit said.

The fire reportedly started in the basement shortly after 9:36 a.m. on August 18, 2019, trapping Kebede and the boy, who had been in Kebede’s care after his mother left at 5:30 a.m. for her shift in duty at George Washington University.

There were no working smoke detectors in the basement, and the fire started near the back exit, the only way out of the basement, according to a lawsuit, because Walker had installed a barrier front metal security guard to prevent basement tenants from accessing the downstairs, where his girlfriend ran a dressmaker’s shop.

When firefighters rushed to the burning townhouse, they had to call a hacksaw to get through the door. When they got to the basement, they found the little boy lying on top of Kebede, both badly burned and unconscious.

Solomen, who was in cardiac arrest, was taken to the Children’s National emergency room, where he was resuscitated 30 minutes later. But it was too late: Doctors told his mother, who rushed to the hospital after her cleaning job, that he was brain dead. He died of his injuries two days later.

Kebede was taken by ambulance to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead. He left a minor child, according to the costumes.

Lawsuit: Officer tried for months to get DCRA to investigate

The negligence allegations against the district are largely based on the findings of an independent report that DC Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned in October 2019, which detailed a litany of “critical faults” by the DCRA and other district agencies before the fire.

As stated in the lawsuit, DC Police Officer Ernie Davis was called to the townhouse on March 21, 2019, nearly five months before the fire for the noise violation report.

The officer, who had received cross-training in identifying and reporting code violations, was troubled by the series of hobbyist-built apartments he found inside. He also noted the nearly two-decade-old certificate of occupancy authorized for a delicatessen and pharmacy on the first floor, not the tailoring shop or rental accommodation.

The officer filed a public incident report, writing “There are too many shift doors with locks, which would make it difficult to exit in an emergency.” He sent the report to DCRA and two FEMS employees the next day with the subject line “Serious Code Violations”.

But the officer’s initial complaint, which should have been immediately sent by phone to the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency hotline, was only forwarded to a series of other DCRA employees, some of whom were who apparently never opened it, and the complaint was never recorded in the database that DCRA uses to track issues, according to the DC investigation.

The lawsuit said the officer followed up four times over the months in an apparent attempt to push the DCRA into action. When the case was finally turned over to a DCRA investigator in June 2019, the employee went to 708 Kennedy Street, took photos of the building’s facade, knocked on the front door, and, when no one answered, left.

The investigator said he had surrendered twice more, but the prosecution said “there is no evidence to corroborate” this.

There was no digital record of visits in the DCRA database, and the investigator said the paper files he kept were lost during an office move, according to the prosecutions.

The prosecutions said two DCRA officials, who typically kept track of open investigations via an offline spreadsheet, decided not to include the house in a report listing open complaints, and decided to shut it down. 708 Kennedy investigated on August 16, two days before the fire. .

“Despite the detailed warnings and persistence of Agent Davis, the only action taken by the district in the months leading up to the fire was to send a single employee to the property to inquire about the proper permits,” they said. declared the two lawsuits.

Following the officer’s report, “No district employee has ever inspected the interior of 708 Kennedy. FEMS has never even opened a file concerning 708 Kennedy. DCRA closed its file on 708 Kennedy two days before the fire. The district’s actions (or, more accurately, its absence) can be described as nothing less than disgraceful negligence and a “blatant violation” of its duties, the lawsuits said.

The lawsuits also lambasted the DCRA’s response to the fire:

Given the horrific circumstances of (Solomen’s) death and the sickening awareness that it was entirely preventable, one would assume that the District would have quickly reformed the way it responds to complaints about unsafe buildings and illegal housing, ” said the lawsuit. “However, upon learning of the fire, DCRA director Ernest Chrappah issued a public appeal to tenants, stating”[p]contact us so we can hold your landlord accountable and make sure you live in a safe environment. Such a roundabout statement leaves the onus on victims of assault to identify the perpetrators before the assault occurs. Worse yet, a district police officer “reached out” to the DCRA four times and the DCRA did nothing.

Each lawsuit seeks $ 50 million in compensatory damages from Walker and DC, and $ 100 million in punitive damages from Walker.

One of the lawsuits was filed by DC attorney Peter Grenier, who represents Solomen’s mother and her son’s estate. The other lawsuit was filed by DC attorney Jerry Spitz, who represents Kebede’s estate.

Megan Cloherty of OMPP contributed to this report.

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