Building won't answer safety quesitons

Hope this is the right forum.

I rent a condo in a co-op building. My landlord is the condo owner, but my issue is with the building board.

I need to know:
- Is there anyway to force the building management to verify if our fire alarm is working properly?
- Is it standard practice not to evacuate a building when some one keeps turning on their gas and they have to be forcibly removed?
- What recourse do I have after getting CO poisoning from these?

There was a bad fire on the 12th floor last Friday evening, 3 floors down and 3 & 4 units over from me. The fire alarm, which is tested once a month, did not go off. By the time I smelled something, the hallway was filling with black smoke. I grabbed some stuff and walked through the smoke to the stairs.

Had the window open most of that night. The next morning I was extremely nauseous and left for most of the day with the windows open. I stayed there Saturday night and all day Sunday with the windows cracked.

Sunday night the fire alarm went off. It turned out to be a false alarm. However, at that time I found out that the fire department was on the floor above me earlier that day for a problem with gas in one of the condos.

By Monday morning, I constantly thought I was going to vomit, had a pounding headache, and started coughing. That night was a meeting held by the management board. I had sent them an email earlier in the day asking about the fire alarm not going off Friday, it going off on Sunday, whether or not there was a gas leak Sunday, when would the halls be cleaned (I told them I thought it was making me sick). They did not respond and hid behind the fire marshal's investigation so they would not have to answer any questions at the meeting. They never even mentioned the gas and at one point someone suggested not leaving the windows open at night because the pipes might freeze.

By Tuesday morning, I was getting sicker. I went to the doctor who diagnosed me with Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Tuesday night I temporarily moved in with a relative. I called the building immediately after finding out and told them the situation, she had me leave a voice mail message with the site manager. I sent them an email later that night, again no response. I also contacted the fire department who went out there to test the hallway air on Wednesday, which by that time was okay, but they could not enter my condo without me there. The fire department confirmed the gas incident on Sunday, that the building will not acknowledge, and even stated that it may have contributed to the CO poisoning.

Today, Thursday, a friend in the building called me with a new email address the building gave out. So I asked them, again, if the fire alarm was fixed, why no one had notified us of the gas incident, etc. Again, no response.

I want to go home, but I also want to feel safe. Do I have any legal recourse to get them to answer these safety issues?

[OHlandlord]

I'm a little confused by your post. You say the fire alarm did not go off on Friday evening when there was a fire, yet it did go off on Sunday when it was a false alarm??? Was this an alarm in the common hallway, or one inside your condo? Are your alarms hardwired (wired to go off all at the same time)? Do they have battery back-ups in them? If this unit is seperate from the others, is in your unit, and has a battery back-up, you may need to check - the long term battery may need replaced. If it is hardwired and in a common area, fill out a request for repair on it and send it to management by certified mail, return receipt requested and keep a copy.

I don't quite understand the gas problem either. You say someone keeps turning on their gas? Gas to what appliance? Connections to gas appliances are usually checked by the gas company, gas leaks are investigated by the fire department, both could be enforced with a call to the city's building inspector. I'm guessing that management didn't respond to the questions about the gas because they didn't know. The fire department doesn't allow anyone inside the unit while they investigate a gas leak. Maybe they hadn't gotten a report back from the fire department yet to tell them what had happened. Is this a recurring problem? The fire department would have checked for CO2 before they cleared the area and allowed the occupants to return. Is an occupant turning on gas to a tagged appliance (one that cannot be used because it does not operate safely)? Improper burning of gas in an appliance is the major cause of CO2 poisoning. It does not come from a gas leak itself.

To contact the building maintenance about repairs or problems, DO NOT E-MAIL them. Send a LETTER staing the problem, the required action, a request to contact you within X days to tell you when a repair would be made and send it to them by certified mail, return receipt requested, and keep a copy. This proves youmade a request, the got it, and you may take further action if they fail to respond.

Sorry about the confusion. Thank you for the reply.

The fire, 3 floors below me was very bad and black smoke filled the hallways from floors 12 to 18. No, the fire alarm did NOT go off. People were pulling the alarm all over the buildings and it never made a sound. There are 2, 18 story buildings in my complex and 1 pull will set off the common area alarms in both buildings. The smoke detector in my unit did not go off either, not a surprise because our doors are supposed to be designed to minimize smoke, noise, sound, etc. I know a woman who was down the hall from the fire and her smoke detector never went off even though the hallway was so bad she could not a thing.

Yes, the fire alarm did go off on Sunday for the false alarm. Apparently, someone in the other building pulled it but no fire was found. However, I feel that either they know why the alarm failed on Friday and it is fixed or they are not sure why it is working now and we can not rely on it in an emergency. They will not even say if it is fixed!!! When home, I can smell the smoke damage from the hallway and check out there all the time to see if there is smoke because I don't trust the alarm.

I know all the rumors about the gas problem (not sure how to refer to it), but have only verified with the fire department that someone kept turning on their gas and that person is no longer in the building. The rumor is it was a suicide attempt. Not to sound cold, I don't care if it was a suicide attempt. I just want to know, from the building, if there are a gas leak on the 16th floor on Sunday, how bad it was, and why no one was notified. If it was small, then I just want to hear that, but from what I'm hearing it was not. The fire department told me about it because he said it may have contributed to my CO levels.

I don't know what the fire dept checked afterward, they did not say whether or not the CO levels were monitored when I spoke to them. All I know is that I got mild to medium Carbon Monoxide Poisoning which started the morning after the fire and got progressively worse each day until I had vision problems while driving. Unfortunately, I didn't go to the doctor until Tuesday because I thought it was just a cold or flu. I notified everyone I could think of when I found out because the building is telling people to close their windows at night. We have a lot of older retired residents who are more susceptible to CO poisoning then I am.

I FEEL THAT I HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW IF THE FIRE ALARM IS FIXED AND WHAT CAUSED ME TO GET SICK, for my and my neighbors health and safety which they control right now.

I will send a certified letter. In all the events of the last week, that did not even cross my mind.

Thank you