A vicious fire inside a violation-plagued Queens building that killed four people — including a toddler — is now being investigated as a homicide, cops said Sunday.
The deaths of four people in the March 16 blaze that tore through 132-05 Avery Ave. in Flushing were deemed a homicide by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Both the police and fire department’s investigations into the blaze remain ongoing, and there are no arrests at this time, officials said.
The inferno incinerated the three-story Queens apartment building, killing 3-year-old Sihan Yang, 50-year-old Chengri Cui, and two other victims who have yet to be identified, police said.
Department of Buildings records show a history of 55 violations at the property going back to at least 1998, with 16 violations – many relating to illegal apartment conversions – having still been open when the fire broke out.
A violation from 2003 alleges that the residency had been altered to include more than the two-family dwelling had allowed. That violation was still open 23 years later, even after the building had changed hands, DOB records show.
A visit from inspectors in August 2020 found that the legal two-family dwelling had been illegally converted to include five single-resident occupancies and nine additional beds, according to a DOB complaint.
The inspector had ordered the building’s second and third floors to be vacated, an order that was still in place at the time of the fire, records show.
While some violations relating to the August 2020 inspection had been resolved, several others were still open six years later when the fire blazed through the building, DOB records show.
