Sources: Owner to face safety violations over deadly Spring Valley fire

According to state law, the only properties required to have mandatory inspections are commercial, religious or are three-family residences or more.

Diane Caruso and Lee Danuff

Mar 7, 2023, 5:29 PM

Updated 507 days ago

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Code inspectors in Rockland County are looking at other homes with the same owner as the house that burned down in this weekend's fatal Spring Valley fire.
Jacob Jeremias owns 118 Lake St., where a fire killed five people, including two children in Spring Valley. 
Sources say that fire was likely electrical and started in the kitchen.  
"We have to issue these violations and hold these landowners accountable and make them remediate these conditions to provide that safe environment for people," says Ed Markunas, of Rockland Office of Buildings & Codes.
News 12 cameras were present as Rockland's Office of Buildings and Codes inspected Jeremias' property at 86 Lake St. Tuesday.
Markunas estimates between 15 to 20 violations at the home, including plumbing, electrical, illegal subdivisions and work done without a permit.
A tenant said smoke detectors had been installed the previous night. 
News 12 cameras followed inspectors to another home on Jay Street, where they found single-room occupancies and no working smoke detectors. 
They have looked at five of Jeremias' properties in the last two days. 
According to state law, the only properties required to have mandatory inspections are commercial, religious or are three-family residences or more.
However, the people who live at these single- or two-family homes allowed inspectors inside because safety is top of mind.
News 12 has attempted to get comment from Jeremias by phone, email and in person but has not heard back. 
The Red Cross has helped more than a dozen other people displaced by this weekend's fire. 


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