Torres, Schumer unveil 4-Point Federal Fire Safety Package in wake of Twin Parks fire

The plan also targets space heaters, requiring them to have built-in shut-off mechanisms.

News 12 Staff

Jan 25, 2022, 10:46 PM

Updated 991 days ago

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The Twin Parks apartment fire is still fresh to many in the community as mourning continues for those lost in the deadly fire. Now, elected officials are drawing up a plan that they say will make sure we don’t see that kind of fire in New York or anywhere else again. 
The fire claimed the lives of 17 people, eight of them children, roughly two weeks ago. 
"This fire was preventable,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer. “There are kids who lived in that building who are never going to play in that play yard again. You're never going to hear those joyful screams."
This is why Sen. Schumer and other elected officials are introducing the 4-Point Federal Fire Safety Package. 
This is a plan Rep. Ritchie Torres and Sen. Schumer want to introduce that aims to require the installation of sprinkler systems in public housing and Section 8 housing–requiring residential buildings to have self-closing doors. 
This is something the Twin Parks apartment building had but wasn’t working at the time of the fire. 
The plan also targets space heaters, requiring them to have built-in shut-off mechanisms. 
However, elected officials say those new safety standards would need to be set by the Commission on Consumer Product Safety, not Congress. 
The plan gives the U.S. Fire Administration the authority to investigate fires for research and training purposes. 
"The Federal Government has no process in place to investigate major fires in the United States which is a missed opportunity to learn from history, it's a missed opportunity to prevent a repeat of the worst fires,” said Rep. Torres.