The 2363 Prospect Avenue fire erupted in a family’s apartment when a three-year-old child accidentally turned on the stove two days after Christmas in 2017. The fire started from the stove and spread quickly through the building. The fire soon worsened because the tenants’ doors were supposed to have self-closed, but they did not work that day. Several people did not make it out of the building and were burned, while others died from smoke inhalation, and over 50 residents have suffered from various injuries caused by the fire, have lost their homes, and have severe PTSD from the experience.
Ronemus & Vilensky represents sixty-five tenants from the building, thirteen of which died from the fire. The attorney argues that two things should have been in proper shape that would have prevented this fire; the first being that there should have been safety caps on the stove valves for the toddler’s protection. Secondly, the landlord failed to maintain the self-closing doors as a fire safety and building mandate. Attorney Vilensky successfully sued the landlord of the building for twenty-six million dollars. However, Vilensky continued the case by suing the manufacturer of the stove that originally started the fire. This suit is still open, and should be, according to Attorney Vilensky, “this is a terribly sad case, and I am going to continue to fight for my clients because they deserve the most.”
