From [HERE] As leaders shift blame from electric space heaters to overcrowded housing in the wake of deadly fires in both the Bronx, New York and Philadelphia, experts say the true culprit is poor residential conditions and the racism rife in the nation’s urban planning and infrastructure decisions.

Within days of each other, the fire in a Bronx building killed at least 17 people, including several Gambian immigrants, and another in a Philadelphia row house killed a dozen. But the fatal nature of these fires follows a historical pattern in which negligent policymaking and infrastructural decisions can kill Black people at disproportionate rates.

“We’re looking at how land use and zoning policies are used. Because of housing segregation, those policies have been used against communities of color,” said Juanita Lewis, an organizer with the New York social justice group Community Voices Heard. “We’re still operating under the context of housing segregation and having to prove who is worthy of protection and living in decent housing. The fire was started by a space heater because there was inadequate heat. The situation in the Bronx is extremely sad, unfortunate and disheartening, but it’s not uncommon.” 

The legacy of early zoning laws across the country that promoted segregation exists today in housing instability that forces Black people into neglected rental units rife with maintenance issues that place them at higher risk for everything from fire deaths to lead poisoning. Black people are more likely than people of other races to die in accidents like fires. Though Black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 25 percent of individuals killed in residential fires across the country, according to the New York State Department of Health.  “Racism influences almost every way to die by accident in America, and it has for a long, long time,” said Jessie Singer, a journalist and author of “There Are No Accidents.” “I looked as far back as 1900, and Black people die by accident at a higher rate than white people, all accidents total. Accidents are supposed to be unpredictable, unpreventable events. If that were true, accidental deaths would be randomly distributed across the U.S., but it’s not.” 

Nine adults and eight children died in the Bronx fire that broke out Sunday morning in the 19-story building on East 181st Street, with authorities responding to the building at about 11 a.m., according to NBC New York. Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Fire Department Commissioner Dan Nigro confirmed that a space heater sparked the blaze and smoke was able to travel quickly through the building after safety doors failed to close. 

The building, built in 1972, did not have fire escapes or sprinkler systems throughout the building, as rules requiring both don’t apply to the city’s older buildings. Department of Housing Preservation and Development online records show several complaints from the residents, including lack of heat in some apartments. 

The apartment building is owned by Bronx Park Phase III Preservation LLC, and city records list the building’s head officer as Rick Gropper, who was appointed to Adams’ mayoral transition team before he took office, The New York Times reported. The building’s owner has not responded to an NBC News request for comment.

For Black immigrants, especially those with low incomes and little formal education, it can be difficult to advocate for safe residential conditions, said Theodore Hamm, the journalism chair and an associate professor who focuses on urban planning, among other subjects, at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, New York.

“There are so many structural impediments to getting problems resolved,” Hamm said. “If you’re a tenant in one of these buildings and there’s a need for upkeep and maintenance, then what do you do? You can call your management company and complain, but if they don’t do anything, what’s the next step? You could call the city, but will that remedy the complaint? In that position, you don’t have much power.” 

Twelve people, including eight children, died in the Philadelphia fire Jan. 5. Officials said there were at least four smoke detectors installed in the row house, but none were working when the fire broke out at the three-floor building in the Fairmount neighborhood around 6:40 a.m. Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam K. Thiel said Tuesday that a Christmas tree had gone up in flames. [MORE]