11 Phillips Street, Amherst (but touching UMass)
The crackdown continues on Phillips Street, the slummiest street in Amherst. Over the
weekend police busted
33 Phillips Street, arresting eight young men (including UMass party anthem "singer" Paul Markham) for rowdy behavior, and now
11 Phillips Street is in the crosshairs.
Of course both dwellings are owned by the "
King of the Decadent Street", Stephan Gharabegian. And yes, notice 11 Phillips is catagorized by our assessor as a "one family" dwelling, meaning only
four (4!) unrelated housemates can set up shop under that particular roof.
From: McKay, Donald, Assistant Fire Chief
To: amherstac
Sent: Wed, Oct 31, 2012 1:51 pm
Subject: 11 Phillips St.
Larry,
The following is the verbatim copy of the email I sent to the Building Commissioners office yesterday:
At approximately 10:00 am today the Fire
Department was contacted by APD Lt Ron Young who had concerns about the
fire safety of the occupants residing at 11 Phillips St.
APD had
obtained a criminal search warrant and
discovered the fire safety concerns upon gaining entry to the
residence.
I responded and conducted a fire safety inspection.
My findings are as follows:
The fire alarm system panel was in trouble and I
question whether or not it was serviceable. No permit has been issued
for the new panel.
I found a first floor pull station that had been
activated and not reset. I have no record of a fire department response
to this address.
14 students in residence in the single family occupancy per APD.
1 bedroom with 2 beds on the 1
st floor with 2 additional mattresses stored under each bed,
2 bedrooms with 2 beds each on the 3
rd floor (# 7 & 8).
Covered, disabled, or missing smoke detectors
east and west bedroom, basement rooms 4, 5, 6, 9, 2
nd floor
rooms 7, 8, 3
rd floor.
Access to the fire alarm panel obstructed.
Egress from the kitchen obstructed.
This spring and summer, Health, Fire, and Building inspected this residence on the 29
th of June and the 17 of August. Each inspection found the same number of bedrooms or possible bedrooms. The owner did not
allow us entry into most of the bedrooms as they were occupied and locked.
The students will not be allowed to sleep in the building until the fire alarm system is returned to service.
I was able to make contact with the
owner who was in New York and he did arrange to have the fire alarm
system placed back in service. I checked on this about 5:30PM last
night.
Mike Roy is at the National Fire Academy this
week but he and I have talked and upon his return we will issue fire
safety violations to the owner.
Assistant Chief Donald R. McKay,
EMT-P, MPH
Amherst Fire Department
