PORTLAND, Maine — A judge agreed Wednesday to freeze the bank accounts and place a $1.7 million lien on the properties of a Portland man who owns the apartment building where six young people died in a Nov. 1 fire.
Justice Joyce Wheeler ruled Wednesday that the family of Steven Summers was more likely than not to win a judgment of at least $1.7 million in the lawsuit filed Nov. 21 in Cumberland County Superior Court. Summers, 29, of Rockland, died at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston four days after he managed to escape the fire.
The parents of another fire victim, 27-year-old David Bragdon Jr., who had recently moved to Portland from Rockland, also said Friday that they have hired an attorney who is expected to file a similar lawsuit against landlord Gregory J. Nisbet.
Summers’ widow, Ashley Summers, filed her suit on behalf of herself, their two children and his estate — arguing that the building at 20 Noyes St., owned by Nisbet, had been maintained in a state of disrepair. The problems at the apartment building included a build-up of trash and combustible materials on the front porch, the common area of the building, and around the outside of the structure.
The building also had a history of lacking working smoke detectors. An affidavit filed with the lawsuit by Paul Garrido, one of the people who escaped the inferno, reported that Garrido did not hear any smoke alarms as he went through trying to alert other residents of the building. A tenant of the building, Nathan Long, reported that the smoke detectors had not worked for the 18 months he lived there, according to the lawsuit.
Garrido also stated in his affidavit that an exit on the second floor to a set of stairs was blocked by a bookcase.
“Luckily, after briefly watching another tenant futilely trying to clear the hallway, they (Garrido and another man) abandoned the effort and escaped out a back window, from where they jumped to the ground,” the affidavit stated.
Soon after they escaped, Summers came out of the building engulfed in flames. He suffered fourth-degree burns over 98 percent of his body. Summers was first taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland and then Massachusetts General. He lived for four days and was able to squeeze the hands of loved ones in response to their words before dying on Nov. 4 after being taken off a ventilator.
Also killed in the fire, which was reported just after 7 a.m. on Nov. 1, were tenants Bragdon; Ashley Thomas, 29; and Nicole Finlay, 26; as well as visitors to the building Christopher Conlee, 25, of Portland and Maelisha Jackson, 23, of Topsham.
Summers had gone to Portland with Garrido to visit his friend Bragdon.
The lawsuit pointed out that Nisbet had not been responsive to complaints by tenants about deficiencies in the building. The lawsuit also pointed out that there had been 16 separate complaints lodged with the inspections division of the city of Portland about the property.
Attorneys investigating Nisbet’s properties also found that Bank of America had won a foreclosure judgment on the 20-24 Noyes St. building in July. According to that judgment, there was more than $300,000 outstanding on the mortgage at that time.
The attorneys found Nisbet had not made mortgage payments since some time in 2011 but continued to collect rent. The liens approved this week were placed against Nisbet’s home at 124 Noyes St. and another property he owns at 186-188 Dartmouth St.
Attorney Steven Silin said Friday he has been contacted by Bragdon’s parents and that as soon as they are appointed the personal representatives of their son’s estate, he expects to follow the same legal route as Summers’ family.
Attorney John Veilleux, who represents Nisbet, said “our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the fire victims” but that it would not be appropriate to discuss the investigation or litigation.
The fire was Maine’s deadliest in four decades, and spurred scrutiny of the city’s fire code inspections process, in part because of the multiple complaints lodged over the years by neighbors against the home, alleging dangerous buildups of trash and combustibles on the property and the addition of third-floor living space in what was supposed to be a two-unit building.
A 2013 consultant’s review of the Portland Fire Department suggested it have 10 full-time inspectors to keep up with regular fire code inspections for buildings across the city. A release by the city two weeks ago acknowledged that Portland’s Inspections Division has “a team of three inspectors that handle land use, building, plumbing and electrical inspections and one inspector that handles citizen complaints.”
The division conducted more than 850 inspections over the past year in response to complaints, but the 2013 department review by Maryland-based Public Safety Solutions Inc. noted that nearly 4,900 businesses and apartment buildings in the city should be inspected annually.
Less than a month after the tragic Portland fire, a trailer fire in Caribou claimed the lives of a mother and her three children. A number of other fires around the state have resulted in injuries and displaced residents in the past month, including an Augusta apartment fire Friday morning that injured seven people.