Bergen Record
BY BEAU PHILLIPS, Record Staff Writer
Date: 04-08-1993, Thursday
A Westwood home in which fire killed the elderly owner, Carrie Williams,
and injured her daughter apparently had been illegally converted into
apartments and contained smoke detectors with dead batteries, officials
said Wednesday.
"The smoke detectors worked," said Ed Doidge, a borough fire inspector.
"The reason they didn't go off was because they had dead batteries in
them."
Doidge said there were two detectors in the two-story home, both on the
first floor. Residents in the converted apartments on the second floor
and in the cellar escaped the blaze Monday unharmed. Fire officials said
Wednesday that it was apparently the second-floor residents who smelled
smoke and called in the alarm at 4:20 a.m.
Carrie Williams' daughter, 68-year-old Allison Williams, was carried out
of the burning house by volunteer firefighters who, along with a borough
patrolman, revived her using cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
She was taken to Pascack Valley Hospital and later to St. Barnabas
Medical Center in Livingston, where she was listed in critical condition
Wednesday with burns to her lungs.
Officials at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, which investigates
all fatal fires, said Wednesday that the cause of the fire had not been
determined. They have said that the fire began in Carrie Williams'
bedroom. Firefighters were not able to reach her until the fire was
extinguished, said Westwood Fire Lt. Wiliam Quinn.
Mayor Henry Geier said Wednesday that the home is in an area zoned for
single-family residences. Borough officials have found no record of
variances that would have allowed Carrie Williams, 89, to convert the
structure into a three-unit apartment.
Geier said he was aware that some homes are being illegally used as
three-, four-, or five-unit apartment buildings; he said the borough is
cracking down on such uses.
"When we distributed the stickers for the new garbage program, we had
people sign the tax rolls," Geier said. "If they said it was a
three-family house or we saw three signatures and we have it listed as a
one-family, it will be turned over to the land use administrator."
Councilman Scott Berkoben, who is in charge of land usage, said he was
having the town records for Williams' home inspected to see whether it
was built or converted before zoning laws existed, and thus would be
exempt from such laws. The house is about 90 years old.
But Geier said that, regardless of a home's age, having a basement
apartment is illegal.
"You cannot have people living in a basement under any circumstances. A
person cannot have an apartment in the basement," Geier said.
On Tuesday, volunteer firefighter Nick Stamatopoulos, who found Allison
Williams and helped drag her to safety, was released from Pascack Valley
Hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation.
Stamatopoulos, among the first to arrive, felt around blindly in the
rear bedroom of the house, where he was told a victim may be trapped.
Fire Lt. William Quinn said he, Stamatopoulos, and Firefighter Larry
Schwarz called to each other during the few minutes they were in the
house to keep track of where they were headed and avoid becoming
trapped. It was Schwarz and Patrolman William Pessler who revived
Allison Williams.
