PORTLAND, Maine - A week ago, the city of Portland announced it would be forming a task force to review fire and code inspection policies in the wake of a deadly fire that claimed six lives. The final details of that task force are expected to be released soon, and according to city officials it will include representatives from the fire and police departments, municipal government and a local landlord association. Tom Porter spoke to a number of city residents about what they would like to see come out of this task force.
Holding a bunch of flowers, Carol Schiller walks the few short yards from her house, across the road to the burned-out building on Noyes Street. She's been here several times to pay her respects since the fire on Nov. 1 that claimed six young lives. On that morning, Schiller witnessed scenes she'll never forget.
"I was awoken by sort of a pop sound," she recalls, "and I just looked out the window and, 'Boom!' a ball of blaze was coming out of the left hand side of the property on Freeman Street. And then I saw a man in the street that was engulfed with flames. It was horrifying."
At this point, Schiller says it looked like the fire would spread to other buildings. She ran across the street to warn her neighbors on Noyes Street, and credits the quick arrival of the Portland Fire Department with preventing even more from dying in the blaze.
Schiller is president of the University Neighborhood Association. Like much of Portland, she says, this district contains a lot of students and young people living in rental housing.
She remembers fondly some of the young people who perished on Noyes Street - particularly Nikki Finlay and Ashley Thomas, who she often encountered walking their small pet dog in the nearby park.
"They just exuded a lot of positive energy and you could tell they wanted connections in the neighborhood," Schiller says. "They talked to people, they were friendly, their little dog was an attraction."
Records show that since 2003, The city of Portland received 16 complaints about the state of the building at 20-24 Noyes Street. Schiller says the Neighborhood Association wrote a letter as recently as May - which she says was before the most recent tenants moved in - pointing out potential fire hazards associated with the building.
"There was a big couch on the porch and lots of barbeque grills," she says.
Schiller says a fire like the one at Noyes Street could have occurred at any number of properties, and she wants the city's new task force to recognize the need to prioritize and designate funds so that all buildings can be inspected adequately and regularly: something which city fire officials have, in the past, been quoted as saying they don't have the resources to do.
But in a community with a very low vacancy rate, and where more than half of residents live in rented accommodation, Schiller says action must be taken. "Our city needs to protect the young adults that are coming here to study and work," she says. "We owe it to them."
"I'm actually moving out of Portland and one of the big reasons was that fire," says 25-year-old Jared Donisvitch.
Donisvitch lives in a rented third floor apartment on nearby Payson Street, with his girlfriend, who he says was good friends with one of victims of the Noyes Street fire.
Donisvitch says they have no complaints about their landlord, but feel nervous about the potential fire risk posed by careless neighbors, who may remove batteries from a smoke alarm, or a leave a lit cigarette lying around. "I do believe that we need to have much more rigorous systems in place," he says.
One feature he would like the city to introduce would be a requirement for all multi-unit rentals to have connected fire alarms. "That's huge, and I know it's very expensive to do that," he says. "I know I read somewhere that it's something like $20,000 for a five-apartment house."
"This has just brought it to the top of everyone's mind," says Brit Vitalius, the president of the Southern Maine Landlords' Association.
With the Noyes Street fire still under investigation, Vitalius did not want to speculate on possible causes. But he says the tragedy has served as a wake-up call for many landlords.
"Landlords' feelings are, 'This could have been me,' " he says. "I don't know what the cause was, I don't know what happened, but a fire could happen in any buildilng, and that's why all landlords are scared right now."
Vitalius says, in his experience, most landlords are diligent about fire safety. In fact, Vitalius would propose a new system for landlords to help fill the gap in city fire inspections by having landlords trained in the basic inspection techniques. He says it could help other landlords get essential feedback about their properties.
" 'How am I doing? Do I basically have the right smoke detectors because they are different kinds?' " Vitalius asks rhetorically. "There's ionization, there's photo-electric and some are supposed to be hard-wired, some are supposed to be inter-connected, and if we could have some of members trained in some basic knowledge - it's not a certification, it's not a sign-off from the city, but it's safer than not having it."
The Southern Maine Landlords Association, meanwhile, is holding an informational event on fire safety for landlords on Nov. 19.
Caroline Losneck contributed reporting to this story.