Boxes, pillows, clothing and dozens of other items littered the area around 640 West End Avenue on Wednesday, a day after firefighters battled a fire in a third-floor apartment there.
The firefighters tossed the items out the window of the apartment as they battled the blaze. No one was reported injured. An FDNY spokesman had noted that the apartment was filled with debris.
Some news organizations have called the inhabitants “hoarders,” though that seems more like a psychological designation. It’s probably fair to say they had a lot of stuff.
Photos by Ernie Fritz.
Describe (“had a lot of stuff”), don’t diagnose (“hoarders”)–I love your approach. I wish it were more widely used.
I think that’s my red pillow
Massage the nomenclature all you like, that is hoarding – and it is dangerous not only to them but to all other occupants of the building. Hopefully the occupant of that apartment gets the help they need.
You are absolutely correct. Hoarding is a poorly understood disorder with no known treatment. It is a sad situation for the affected and a dangerous one for their neighbors.
Other news media are quoting FDNY as saying there were hoarding conditions inside the apartment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ZeM6VgYXI
After the death of Gordon Ambelas back in 2014 the FDNY obviously has changed how it responds to “hoarding” conditions.
College’s Mansion: original name for the hazardous condition, based on 2 brothers in Harlem. Fascinating stuff, look it up.
It’s Collyer’s, not college. named after two brothers. Also Collier is used.
https://www.theplan.com/clutter/brothers.htm
I suspect a case of autocorrect.
It was the Collier brothers. They had so much debris that the one brother couldn’t get to the incapacitated brother and he starved to death. They had a car in their dining room.
We had a hoarder in our building who was so bad that he started putting his stuff in the hallway. It took years of complaining and fruitless visits by social services who came to “evaluate” the situation before he was finally evicted. He had obvious mental health issues but his family checked out and the city agencies weren’t equipped to deal with it. Sad story but he put the entire building at risk for years. When they finally emptied his place it took a full crew of workers days to remove everything. Plus he had several cats.
We had a fire in our condo building a few years ago. Turns out the guy was a news paper “collector”. Needless to say it was bad fire with high CO2 levels. I wish our boards would enforce some rules around hoarding, especially when they suspect that is what happening.
If you’re not a trained and licensed psychotherapist or the equivalent, refrain from diagnosing.
We have no idea how much was or wasn’t in the apartment.
As for danger to others? Our building had two fires twice. Both times: Harried mothers (30 something) who forgot about stuff on stove and in oven.
So let’s not start pointing fingers at who is the likely cause of a fire in a building. It isn’t “hoarders” any more than another neighbor who starts a fire accidentally (candles! cooking, electronics).
I’d rather deal with hoarders in a building than smokers. I’d wager if we look at overall fire stats, smoking is up there as a major cause. Yet we let people smoke in buildings. Far more risk. Even folks who use candles pose more risks on a daily basis.
Seriously. I had a wonderful apartment in Bay Ridge that I had to leave. The woman two floors above me fell asleep while smoking a cigarette. Destroyed her apartment, the one next to it and those below us sustained massive water damage from what was needed to put it out.
Alrighty then, the Collyer brothers just had toooooo much stuff. But call it what you will, it is a hazardous condition for both the tenant(s) and neighbors. Hoarders or “too-much-stuffers” often live in very unsanitary conditions that lead to infestations of bugs and vermin, bad odors and sometimes cause building structural problems, among other things. These problems often infiltrate to other apartments and a landlord can legally evict tenants for this. This condition can be cured by social services without costing tenants any money. NYS Senator Liz Krueger has an excellent pamphlet on this.
San Francisco has strong hoarding regulations and related services. Should NYC be as strict?
https://sfrb.org/information-hoarding-and-cluttering
Good info and thanks for that. NYC should step up its de-cluttering programs, as the hoarders are often the main victim of this condition, like the person in this article. It’s often a result of the disabled or elderly who simply can’t keep up with normal maintenance — totally curable with the proper help. I know several people whom I’ve personally helped with this problem, one of whom was nearly evicted.