Owners of Downtown Eastside hotel found guilty of fire bylaw violations

The Vancouver provincial court has found the owners of a Downtown Eastside flophouse guilty of a dozen fire bylaw violations.

In March 2014, charges were laid against the owners of the Chelsea Hotel, at 33 West Hastings, after the Vancouver fire department conducted inspections of the premises.

In a recent ruling, Judicial Justice Zahid Makhdoom noted the condition of the Chelsea, which is occupied by inner-city poor, did not come even close to the condition of some other single-room accommodation buildings in the area.

But Makhdoom said the multiplicity of fire bylaw violations, in particular the failure to maintain the fire alarm system, rendered its clients seriously vulnerable.

“I take judicial notice of the tragic outcome of the fire of Aug. 19, 2008, which burned the Columbus Hotel in Prince George, B.C., causing three deaths.”

Makhdoom added: “The stark reality is that non-compliance of the fire bylaw could cause death and untold misery to a large number of human beings who may be faced with tremendous challenges to look after their own safety and security.”

In addition to failing to maintain the fire alarm system, the owners failed to maintain portable fire extinguishers, did not illuminate exit lighting and exit signs, permitted a fire separation door to be blocked, failed to have protective caps on all fire department connections to the building and permitted combustible materials to accumulate.

The building is owned by a numbered company, 0927000 B.C. Ltd., which lists as its directors Abolghasem Abdollahi, Samir Deeby and Yahya Valiseh Nickpour.

Two witnesses testified at trial for the owners. One of them, Jillian Skeet, was described as having the role of a helper to Nickpour, who was “presumably the operating mind” of the company, Makhdoom said.

Skeet and a general maintenance person for the company laid the blame at the feet of the clientele, saying supervision of the property or repairs was futile.

In her submissions, Skeet argued the owners of such hotels are expected to go far beyond any hotel manager or apartment owner in any other jurisdiction and are asked to be “babysitters and wardens and mental health experts and addiction experts and maintenance experts.”

But Makhdoom said it was “perhaps an easy target” to blame the multiple lapses on the residents, many of them drug-addicted and mentally challenged.

“This is a rather blatant example of a corporation engaged in a profitable venture of maintaining a hotel but failing to afford its guests a basic minimum standard of safe lodging. As a landlord, Nickpour should have been cognizant of the nature of its clientele.”

A sentencing date is set for Oct. 24, 2017. The City of Vancouver could not say what sort of sentence it will seek. Under the fire bylaw, fines range from $500 to $10,000 per day per offence charged.