BOROUGH PRESIDENT GIBSON ON PASSAGE OF FIRE SAFETY LEGISLATION INSPIRED BY TRAGIC TWIN PARKS FIRE

 

“After the horrific fire at Twin Parks North West where we lost 17 people, among them eight children, I joined my colleague Council Member Oswald Feliz to discuss steps to prevent a tragedy of this magnitude from happening again. The result was a legislative package dedicated to strengthening fire safety laws to protect our residents and families. Last week, those bills were passed by the New York City Council.

That package makes amendments to existing local laws and introduces new legislation:

•   The time that property owners have to correct self-closing door violations will be lowered.
•   NYC Department of Housing will re-inspect all self-closing door violations.
•   Fines and penalties for self-closing door violations will be increased.
•   The definition of self-closing will include doors that fully shut and latch.

I am grateful to Council Member Feliz, the Members of the Twin Parks Citywide Task Force, NYC Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Council for their collaboration and partnership to ensure there are protections for our tenants. We will honor those we have lost by working to prevent another horrific tragedy from happening again.”