Philadelphia City Hall
PHILADELPHIA – The last remaining part of a lawsuit blaming the Philadelphia Housing Authority for a fire that killed 12 people, including nine children, has been tossed by a federal judge.
Judge Nitza Quinones Alejandro last week granted judgment to the PHA in a case filed two years ago that alleged broken smoke detectors in a public-housing building were to blame for a January 2022 fire, believed to be started when an autistic child set fire to bugs crawling on a Christmas tree.
The complaint said PHA failed its policies of switching tenants in overcrowded apartments to bigger ones and addressing broken smoke detectors within 24 hours of notice.
Alejandro threw out all claims but one in an August ruling, finding the PHA wasn’t liable for a “state-created danger” caused by falsification of reports and an unfulfilled promise to put working detectors in the building, located at 869 N. 23rd St.
All that was left was a claim that Philadelphia had established policies that led to the fire.
“Critically, Plaintiff’s amended complaint fails to allege facts – rather than legal conclusions – to support its claim that the City is liable because it either had a policy or custom of or actually failed to train those tasked with overseeing the overcrowding or the provision of operational smoke detectors in PHA-managed housing units that led to the alleged injuries,” Alejandro wrote.
“Not all tragedies provide a remedy – some courts have called it because of an act of God.”
Alejandro had ruled the plaintiffs were free to leave the apartment or buy their own smoke detectors. A Philadelphia social worker had visited Unit B, which housed 14 occupants, two weeks before the fire and said she would return with functioning smoke detectors.
The PHA also beat back the argument claiming it continued to put too many people in its apartments, even when transfers were requested. Mechanics were blamed, too, for allegedly documenting the detectors as working when they weren’t, which prevented a 24-hour timeframe to fix them from being activated.
