Monsey - A 13-year-old girl suffered smoke inhalation
Wednesday after a fire broke out at a building next door to a yeshiva that had
been illegally converted from a single-family house on Highview Road.
The girl, who was treated at Good Samaritan Hospital, had
been home alone in the caretaker’s house with two small dogs when an iron left
unattended in a second-floor bedroom ignited the fire at 95 Highview Road,
authorities said.
The house apparently lacked smoke detectors as flames left
the house uninhabitable for the family of five, officials said. Tallman Fire
Chief Chris Szklany said 40 firefighters responded and made short work of the
fire and smoke flowing from the two-story building.
Neighbor Annette Doerr called the fire a “nightmare,”
especially after she said close to 150 students at the yeshiva next door at 97
Highview Road moved close to the burning house to watch firefighters. She has
surveillance cameras and said she counted the students.
“The kids all came out and went onto the lawn to look at the
fire,” she said. “I’m screaming like a lunatic at them to get away. I brought
them onto my lawn.”
Doerr also said she was concerned the flames shooting out of
the second-floor window might spread to a town-approved trailer used as a
classroom about 50 feet away.
Doerr and her husband, Bob, have been fighting Ramapo and
Talmud Torah Ohr Yochanan since the congregation illegally opened a school
inside the single-family house at 97 Highview Road in October 2009.
Ramapo took Talmud Torah Ohr Yochanan to state Supreme Court
to force installation of fire-safety devices and to ensure the congregation
obtain site-plan approvals and get variances. The agencies are still reviewing
the plans.
Since then, the number of students and teachers has been
capped at 85 for the house, but the school has added two trailers and set up
classrooms on the second floor to accommodate up to 165 students.
Officials with the Rockland County Illegal Housing Task
Force, which reported the yeshiva to the New York State Codes Division some
time ago, blasted the owners of the property Wednesday.
“It was an illegal school in a former one-family home which
has been cited by the town, but continues to operate as it seeks tax-exempt
status,” said John Kryger, task force chairman. “If this fire had occurred at 3
a.m. instead of 3 p.m., the fire departments would be pulling bodies from that
rental unit, never mind the school.”
Calling Ramapo a “ticking time bomb,” Kryger criticized
Ramapo’s elected leaders for their lack of action in enforcing fire codes.
“If the town is going to continue with its policy of
granting permissions after the fact and ignoring violations, it’s time for a
higher authority to step in,” he said.
Building Inspector Anthony Mallia said he’s waiting for his
fire inspector, Thomas Buckley, to give him a final head count of students at
the school. The school could face additional violations.
Buckley said the fire was not suspicious and the house was
uninhabitable. The family’s two dogs were rescued by Doerr.
A man who identified himself only as Rabbi Meisel said the
children were kept safely away from the flames by administrators and then bused
home.
By Steve Lieberman -
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