 Where
were the Teeth in the City Housing Code on November
11, 2000
In an article published in the Telegram on Sunday,
July 17, 2005, George Jones, community code
enforcement supervisor stated that as of July 13,
2005, 655 houses failed to meet minimum housing codes.
This seems to be a continuing problem with the City of
Rocky Mount.
On November 11, 2000, a deadly fire occurred at 416
Arlington Street, killing seven (7) people-six (6)
children, from the age of four (4) months to fourteen
(14) years, and one (1) adult. This home was placed
under enforcement by the City of Rocky Mount after the
tenant started complaining to the City in 1997. The
City found the dwelling was unfit for human habitation
and constituted a hazard to health and safety.
The tenant who rented 416 Arlington Street from the
landlord in 1997 and 1998 had no heat or running
water. She carried water in buckets to flush the
commode and at times ran a hose from the business next
door in order to have water. The house was infested by
large rats. The electrical system was defective. She
complained numerous times to the landlord without
results, and she finally filed a complaint with the
City of Rocky Mount in June of 1997. On February 18,
1998, an order was issued by the City to vacate,
close, repair or demolish the home at 416 Arlington by
March 31, 1998. The tenant who filed the complaint had
already moved, because no repairs were made.
In May of 1998, Virgie Lane and her family moved
into the home at 416 Arlington Street. There was still
no heat and there were no smoke detectors. According
to the Landlord Tenant Act (1996 Amendment) and an
ordinance adopted as part of the City Code in March of
1998, smoke detectors are required in all rental
homes. These laws were specifically intended to
decrease child fatalities in residential fires.
According to the City of Rocky Mount, no records
exist showing compliance by the City with neither the
Landlord Tenant Act nor the March 1998 ordinance
requiring smoke detectors. Copies of the permits for
the alleged repairs to 416 Arlington were not
available from the City nor was the Order of
Compliance releasing this home from enforcement and
allowing another family to move into the home. The
landlord who owned this home has a thirty (30) year
history of housing code violations with the City of
Rocky Mount, including other fires where deaths
occurred. The landlord has kept no documentation
concerning smoke detectors as required by the Landlord
Tenant Act and has been cited for smoke detector
violations on dozens of occasions.
Heating appliances were not installed in the home
until sometime during the winter of 1998-long after
their last alleged inspection. Smoke detectors were
never installed. On the night of November 11, 2000,
seven (7) people died in a fire in which the City of
Rocky Mount's own investigation found no smoke
detectors and affirmatively found that no smoke
detectors attributed to the deaths. The City had been
aware of the unsafe conditions at this home since June
of 1997.
While it is admirable for the City to tear down
substandard housing which the landlords refuse to
repair, the Landlord Tenant Act of 1996 and the City's
own smoke detector ordinance of March of 1998 would
have prevented at least seven (7) deaths if the laws
on the books as early as 1996 and 1998 had been
properly enforced. Tearing down houses is only
affective in removing present threats. The City's
Housing Code and the Landlord Tenant Act were enacted
in acknowledgement that substandard housing exists and
for the purpose of enforcing standards and exercising
the police powers of the City to affect the repair,
closure or demolition of such dwellings. The City of
Rocky Mount should not commence wholesale demolition
until they have adequately exercised the police powers
given them by Article 19 of Chapter 160A of the
General Statutes to enforce the repair of substandard
dwellings inhabited by their citizens.
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