NYCLU: Deaths in Group Home Fire Require Immediate Investigation

The New York Civil Liberties Union today called for an immediate investigation into the causes of and contributing factors to a fire at a Hamilton County group home where at least three people were killed. Several of the residents of the home were members of the Willowbrook Class, the plaintiffs in the NYCLU’s 1972 landmark class action case that asserted constitutional rights for people with developmental disabilities who had resided at the notorious Willowbrook State School on Staten Island.

“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy,” said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “The state had a solemn obligation to support and protect the residents of this group home. It is now incumbent upon the state to find out whether it lived up to that tremendous responsibility. The attorney general must immediately begin an investigation.”

The residents of the group home were people who could not evacuate themselves. Of the nine group home residents, five were Willowbrook class members. Of those five, two are confirmed dead and one has been flown by med flight helicopter to a local hospital. Another resident of the home is also confirmed dead.

According to information available Saturday afternoon, the blaze appears to have been an electrical fire and the sprinkler system was knocked out immediately. The home only had a small, manual generator which may have been inadequate for the purposes of operating a sprinkler system. Apparently only two staff members were working in the state-run home overnight. The fire began at 5:30 a.m.

The NYCLU specifically called for the attorney general to investigate:

• Whether there was adequate staffing at the home;
• Whether the home failed to have the full compliment of safeguards in place to ensure safety in the event of a fire; and
• Whether recent cuts in funding have resulted in substandard facilities that contributed to the tragedy.

In 1972, the NYCLU filed a historic civil rights lawsuit to challenge the inhumane institutional conditions suffered by the residents of the infamous Willowbrook State School. These rights include protection from harm, a safe, clean and appropriate physical environment, high quality community residential and treatment services in the least restrictive setting and high quality case management and advocacy services.

More than 35 years later, the NYCLU and other advocates still actively monitor the state on behalf of the members of the Willowbrook Class. This monitoring will continue and will seek to ensure that an investigation unearths the causes of this terrible tragedy.