Newburgh, NY – A third person who lived in a Lander Street house that filled with a lethal level of carbon monoxide because of a clogged furnace chimney died on Friday, according to a social worker at Newburgh Ministry.
Sister Norma Carney identified the man as James Patterson, and said he was one of 10 people from 55 Lander St. and 53 Lander St. who were hospitalized on March 5 with symptoms of carbon-monoxide poisoning.
That same day Robert Richardson, 63, was found dead in a basement apartment at 55 Lander. Richardson’s girlfriend, Jewel Cummings, 65, collapsed at the apartment a day earlier and was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital.
Of the 10 hospitalized for the toxic fumes, six were taken to St. Luke’s. Five of them were treated and released; one person remained there for further treatment. Four others were transported to other facilities for treatment. Neither St. Luke’s Hospital nor city police have released information on where they were taken for treatment or their condition in the days since the incident.
Firefighters measured the carbon-monoxide level in the apartment at more than 1,000 parts per million, a level high enough to kill someone within an hour. The apartment had no smoke or carbon-monoxide detectors, and responsibility for the property is fuzzy because the listed owner died in December. A faulty furnance has been blamed for the toxic fumes.
For the city, the deaths inside a building whose apartments had no carbon-monoxide detectors represents a turning point. City Manager Michael Ciaravino has vowed to enforce a long-neglected law requiring landlords to register rental properties and get annual inspections. Such inspections are supposed to catch things like missing smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors.
At the end of the day, we need this registry active and we need to protect the residents, Ciaravino said Tuesday of the city’s intention to begin enforcing the rental registry law.
Patterson’s death came the same morning a funeral was held for Richardson at Living in Jesus Ministry on South Street.
A very nice man, Carney said of Patterson.
Rashida Herbert, a friend of Patterson’s, said he lived on the second floor of 55 Lander. She described him as a good person and said he worshipped at the Masjid Al-Ikhlas mosque in the city.
I’m glad I did spend some quality time with him, Herbert said. On the other side, I’m hurt.