Five New York City firefighters together with their families were recently awarded by the jury $183 million following a trial that stemmed from an apartment building fire in 2005 in a day that became infamously called "Black Sunday."
The blaze which razed through a tenement building in a Bronx borough on Jan. 23, 2005 had killed two firefighters and injured four others severely. One of the injured firefighters eventually died in 2011.
On Monday, the jury found New York City to be 80 percent responsible for the injuries and death. Owners of the building were found accountable for 20 percent.
A judge overturned negligent homicide in February 2010. Reckless endangerment convictions against the manager and owner of the building were also overturned at the same time since building tenants had erected a labyrinth of unlawful walls. Two tenants, however, were acquitted of such charges by a separate jury.
Vito Canavo, the lawyer of the firefighters argued that New York City had failed to provide them with the right ropes to use in their escape leading them to jump out of the building in order to flee from the raging fire.
The firefighters' case emphasized the hazards of using makeshift walls for illegal conversion of apartment dwellings in order to make money by renting rooms to tenants. Due to these illegal walls, the apartment building was turned into a deadly maze.
During the fire, the firefighters were trapped on the building's 4th floor, partly due to the walls that had been erected in the apartments.
A city spokesman said in a statement that the jury had put the blame too much on the city and that the city would consider appealing the decision.
"The city has always viewed this incident as a tragedy for the firefighters and their families, but we believe that the jury's verdict does not fairly apportion liability in view of compelling evidence that established that the landlord's numerous building code violations were directly responsible for this horrible event," said Nick Paolucci, the city spokesman.
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