Nine children younger than 16 were among the 17 people who died in the Bronx apartment fire. The fire was the worst in New York in more than three decades. The fire was caused by a malfunctioning space heater, which shows how energy efficiency upgrades to apartments aren't just a climate issue, but an urgent justice issue.
The heat in the Twin Parks West building was working when the fire started, but the space heater was being used to provide extra heat in one apartment, according to officials. Black smoke quickly filled the building, which lacked outside exits, as residents broke windows to breathe in the soot. Rescuers said they found people in need of help on every floor of the 19-story building. More than 60 people were injured and 13 were hospitalized.
Anthony Romero told the New York Daily News that he had no choice but to stay in his 12th floor apartment with his pregnant wife and two children despite being asthmatic. There was too much smoke in the hallways and I was not going to leave my apartment and live on the first floor.
The fire at Twin Parks West was so devastating because of some key fire safety issues, including internal stairwells that didn't close adequately and allowed smoke to spread. The cause of the fire itself, a resident having to run a space heater on a cold day in January, cannot be overlooked. The risk of indoor air pollution, fire hazard, and increased carbon pollution has been raised by the residents of public and affordable housing who have had to use space heaters and gas stoves as sources of warmth in the winter.
New York has 70% of its carbon emissions related to buildings. Increasing efficiency can help cut emissions while also making peoples lives more comfortable, as well as preventing disasters like what happened this week.
Lower-income households spend up to four times more on utilities than wealthier ones, due to inefficient systems in cheaper, historically disadvantaged housing. Energy-guzzling appliances, outdated heating and cooling systems, and poorly-insulated buildings are some of the culprits. Black, Indigenous, and Latino families spend more than their white counterparts, partly because of decades of unfair housing practices.
Half of the nation's apartments were built before 1980, before the advent of many modern techniques to improve efficiency and insulation, and the Twin Parks complex was designed and built in the 1970s. Many of those buildings have outdated heating systems. The systems stop working. Twin Parks East residents told news outlets that the heat had been out in their building for months.
Taylor Morton, the director of environmental health and education for New York City-based WE ACT on Environmental Justice, said in an email that it was horrifying to hear initial reports that a faulty space heater was the cause of the fire. New Yorkers deserve adequate and efficient heat in the wintertime, and this event proves that outdated infrastructure can not only impact our quality of life, but can be deadly.
New York is starting to address the issue. The New York City Housing Authority has a plan to have all of its buildings powered up by the year 2050. Kathy Hochul announced $24 million in funding for an energy efficiency pilot program to upgrade affordable housing in the city. Any future public housing will be all-electric because of the city's recently passed ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings. The head of one of the firms that owns Twin Parks West sat on the housing transition team of the new Mayor Eric Adams.
The Green New Deal for Public Housing is one of the policy proposals at the national level. They would spend trillions of dollars to address the back up of repairs and retrofits for inadequate housing and the construction of new affordable housing units. These types of public investments would create jobs and ensure that people have a good place to live. Saving hundreds of dollars a year is what an 2020 analysis found efficiency upgrades to save, it could help close the wealth gap.
Morton said that we must protect our low-income communities and communities of color from outdated infrastructure by committing to affordable retrofitting and equitable energy policies that are aimed at preventing events like these from happening again.
There was an update at 3:08 p.m. The death toll has been revised.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
