'Nobody should have died' in fatal stove fire, official says
Officials say deadly blaze began on kitchen range

By John Burgeson
ConnPost Staff writer
Updated: 11/16/2009 11:13:31 PM EST

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BRIDGEPORT -- The smoky fire that killed a mother and her three young children early Friday at the P.T. Barnum Apartments public housing complex ignited on the kitchen range, officials said Monday, with one fire commander calling the deaths particularly tragic because "nobody" should have died in what he called a "minor" fire.

But the exact cause remains undetermined, said Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Porzelt. "There was nothing wrong with the stove," he said, "but the only thing that puzzles us is that grates were upside-down on all four burners."

He added there were two pots found on the gas range. He said that whether something was left on an active burner is a matter of conjecture at this point.

The cause will be listed as "undetermined," Porzelt said. "All we know is that it started on the stove."

A final report on the fire will be completed in a few weeks, officials said.

Tiana Black, 22; her 4-year-old twin girls Nyasija and Tyasjia Williams, and son Nyshon Williams, 5, died in the blaze that began about 1 a.m. Friday.

Black was found slumped against the deadbolted door, and the twin girls were nearby. The body of her son was found in an upstairs bedroom.

"It's very strange, because that was a very minor fire as fires go," Porzelt said. "Nobody should have died in that fire. Nobody. Especially with working smoke detectors."

He said the tenant in the apartment next door heard Black's smoke alarm ringing for as long as 20 minutes. "Our response time was three or four minutes. It's a shame that we weren't called earlier."

But Alicia Hillard, who lives next door, said that the smoke alarms in the complex are too sensitive, and that it's impossible to take every sounding alarm seriously. "We ignore other people's fire alarms around here because they work too well. The shower sets them off."

The first 911 call about the fire came from Apartment 152 on the lower level, officials said.

Porzelt on Monday echoed earlier comments made by officials regarding the route of escape from the third floor if the door on the second floor is blocked by fire in the two-level apartments.

"They can walk right out on the roof, and we would pick them up there," he said. "We would be there right away." The roof he was referring to protects the second-floor balcony from the elements. It has about a 20-degree pitch.

The Ocean Terrace Fire Station, which houses Engine Co. 7 and Ladder Co. 11, is a few hundred yards from Barnum Building 12, where Black's Apartment 205 is located.

Leonard Bonaventura, the city's deputy fire marshal, said that under that state fire safety code, second-floor apartments at the Barnum complex are required to have only one entry door, even though the apartments are on two levels.

"The code says that if you are under a certain distance -- and, in this case, you're under that distance ---- only one exit is required," he said. The "distance" he cited is the number of feet from the upstairs bedroom to the entry door. A larger apartment would require more than one entrance.

That fire code applies to all multi-unit apartment buildings, whether or not they are owned by a public housing agency, he said.

John Blaschik Jr., the deputy state fire marshal, agreed Monday that the apartment in question does comply with state and federal fire safety regulations.

Meanwhile, funeral arrangements have been made for Black and her children. The service will take place at noon Thursday in Mount Aery Baptist Church, 73 Frank St., with viewing beginning at 10 a.m. Burial will be a Lakeview Cemetery on Boston Avenue.

Hillard, Black's neighbor, said that her apartment has become uninhabitable because of the sooty blaze, and said she and her five children have had to scramble to find clothing and housing.

"I don't have clean clothes ---- look how I look," she said. "Right now, Longfellow School is doing more for me than the housing authority. The only one that cares is the school."

She also said that no one tested the electrical outlets in her adjoining wall with Black's apartment.

"I'm traumatized. My mother won't even come over here."

Hillard also questioned the wisdom of expecting people to escape a fire via the second-floor windows and onto the porch roof.

Standing by an upstairs window in the apartment next door to Black's ---- its exact "twin" ---- she said that a lot of residents are too large to squeeze through the window.

"Plus, a lot of these windows don't work right," she said. "You open them up, and they'll slam back down on you."

Longfellow School Principal James F. Adams said that he remembers Black and her three small children.

"I remember that the mother was a student here, too," he said. "Always a good student. From here, she went to Bassick High School. She was going to nursing school at Housatonic Community College."

Adams said that he asked all of the school's faculty members to contribute $20 to help defray funeral expenses, and students were asked to contribute $1.

"And I also asked students to ask their parents for $2," he said.