Parents w/ Kids in Off-Campus Housing -- Safety, Code, & Fire Dangers

Parents Forum
1

<p>The Boston Globe has a new special, several part series on the situation in Boston where housing violations (etc) are commonplace and at least one college student has died in a fire (due to no egress) in the past year.</p>

<p>Eye-opening (if you didn't know already about this problem) and worth a read (and watch - there is a documentary too) if you and/or your child are living off campus or want to do so.....Also, a sad reminder to parents to never let our children (if possible) live in unsafe housing!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/special-reports/2014/05/02/video/t6tN2blviSRWH8j2DdmGfJ/story.html"&gt;http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/special-reports/2014/05/02/video/t6tN2blviSRWH8j2DdmGfJ/story.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p><a href=“http://www.fireengineering.com/articles/2014/02/one-dead-in-frostburg-md-house-fire-two-injured.html”>PGT Completes Radiation Sensor Testing on LDUUV - Fire Engineering: Firefighter Training and Fire Service News, Rescue;

<p>A bit more information, including the recent death of a Frostburg student.</p>

3

<p>Conditions considered unsafe by current codes could very well apply to old housing that is not near a college campus. A simple example would be 1950s houses with two prong electrical outlets and no GFCI in bathrooms and kitchens. Or 1970s houses with aluminum wiring, where someone replacing a fixture or outlet may not take care to use the special ones that can be used with aluminum wiring.</p>

4

<p>Very good movie. As a student who recently signed a lease for an apartment next year, I’ve seen some of the ways these investors try and make money. I am lucky as my dad works in construction/maintainence, and has a very good knowledge of the field, so I kind of grew up around him fixing up the house and I understand what is/isn’t safe.</p>

<p>The thing is that a lot of the time the students who go to these rentals like it. They like the cheap price, they like the idea of living with 6 of their best buddies, they like that the landlord doesn’t give a ■■■■ if they smoke/drink/trash the place. </p>

5

<p>My daughter spent a summer in off-campus housing near yale. I saw it only briefly, but that night I called an asked her about fire alarms and fire escapes (she was on the third floor). Her room had a fire escape, but the bedroom next door did not; it was clearly a divided bedroom and no one worried about the second one having egress. Yikes.</p>