On Monday, March 27, 2017, a three-story transitional housing building near downtown Oakland was destroyed by a massive fire. Four persons were killed. Four others were hospitalized with smoke inhalation, but were expected to be released. The fire started on the top floor of the building located at 2551 San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland. Fire inspectors reportedly found 11 glaring safety violations just three days earlier.
My heart, and those of the entire Bay Area, go out to the families and friends whose loved ones died at the Ghost Ship on December 2, 2016. The horrific inferno at the converted, two-story warehouse constitutes the deadliest structure blaze in California since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.
This week’s question comes from Kimmie L: “Wet weather recently has led to the steps and stairs at my apartment entrance to be slippery. I fell and ended up at the emergency room. Is my landlord responsible?”
This week’s question comes from Tara P. in Hayward, who writes: “The weirdest thing happened recently. I had just bought a house out of foreclosure. I was working on the interior while living there. I went away for the night to a friend’s house. When I came home the next day after work, there was a circus tent covering my house. Seriously, a circus tent. Not only that, there were signs saying “stay back, toxic gasses in use.”
My house had been fumigated while I was out! I didn’t ask for my house to be fumigated. I called the company and they said that it was my house that was supposed to be fumigated. I said no, and they read the address. They fumigated my house on an avenue when they were supposed to fumigate a house, with the same number, a couple blocks away on a court. They said that a real estate agent had paid for the fumigation. I am against the use of pesticides and chemicals. I told them to take the tent off my house but they said they couldn’t for three days until the chemicals dissipated.
Thank God I had dropped my kitten off at the vet’s for boarding. They said that they didn’t have signed paperwork as the job was phoned in by a Realtor they have worked for before. I had to go to a hotel until my house was untarped three days later. I had to buy some work clothes and a pair of shoes as my clothes were all sealed up inside the tent. Since then I have thrown away all of the food in my pantry, sent my clothes to the cleaners and I am having a green company come in and do a top to bottom cleaning. I told the fumigators that I wanted to be compensated for this inconvenience and expense, they said that they were going to give me the fumigation for free. This is not acceptable. What rights do I have?”
This week’s question comes from Jason M. In Pacific who asks: “A friend of mine and I were invited by a group of guys to go to a place in the central valley where you can do motocross on a fairly large piece of land. They have hills which people jump over and other features that make it a challenging course. Generally everyone knows to travel in one direction, counter clockwise. I have ridden there before without a problem. The last time I was nearly killed when someone was going the wrong way and slammed into me crushing my left leg and foot as we both rounded the same corner going in opposite directions. There is usually an arrow pointing the right direction at the entrance to the course from where people park Later I saw that one side had fallen so that it pointed up in the air. I have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Do I have a case?”