If you were burned, injured, or lost a family member in a fire or an explosion in New York City, a NYC fire and explosion lawyer can tell you who is responsible and what your case is worth, at no cost to you. Most serious fires are not accidents in the ordinary sense. They start because an alarm was dead, a door did not close, gas work was done by someone unqualified, a battery was charging where it should not have been, or a landlord ignored a violation for years.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower represents burn survivors, families, tenants, and workers hurt in fires and blasts across the five boroughs. These cases are built on a scene that gets torn out and rebuilt within weeks, so they are decided by who gets to the proof first. Below are the questions injured people ask our fire and explosion attorneys most.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
You likely have a case if the fire or blast happened because someone failed to do something they were required to do. That includes a landlord who never fixed the smoke alarms, a contractor who ran gas line work without a license, a building that let a stairwell door be propped open, a manufacturer whose battery or appliance failed, or a utility that was told about a gas smell and did not act. You do not need to know the technical cause. Determining it is what the investigation does, and our fire and explosion lawyers review what happened at no cost.
The cause is the case. Each of these patterns leads to a different set of defendants and a different set of records.
Apartment fires turn deadly because of conditions the owner controlled. Missing or dead smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, self-closing doors that were disabled or broken, blocked or locked exits, cluttered stairwells, illegal partitions and single room occupancy conversions that trap people, missing fire escapes, and sprinkler or standpipe systems that were out of service all appear again and again. Buildings with a history of violations for these conditions are common, and that history is public.
Gas blasts level buildings and damage the ones next door. They trace to unlicensed or unpermitted gas piping work, illegal taps and diversions, corroded or damaged service lines, appliances installed wrong, contractors who struck a line while digging, and reports of a gas odor that were never acted on. The utility, the property owner, the contractor, the plumber, and the company that was supposed to inspect the work all belong in that investigation.
Batteries for e-bikes, scooters, and mobility devices have become a serious cause of fatal fires in New York City, and the Fire Department has warned about them repeatedly. These fires start fast, burn hot, and often begin in a hallway or near the only exit. Responsibility can run to the maker or seller of a defective or uncertified battery or charger, a repair or conversion shop, a delivery company that requires workers to charge at home or in a workspace, and a landlord or business that allowed unsafe charging in a common area.
Torch cutting, welding, roofing kettles, temporary heaters, and flammable materials stored badly start fires on job sites and in occupied buildings under renovation. Fire watch requirements, permits for hot work, and shutting down open flame before the end of a shift exist to stop exactly this. These claims overlap with construction accident, electrical injury, and demolition cases.
Space heaters, stoves, dryers, power strips, chargers, wiring, and vehicles all cause fires when they are defective or when a known danger was never recalled. A product case runs against the manufacturer, the distributor, and the retailer, and it usually depends on preserving what is left of the product itself.
New York City puts specific fire safety duties on residential building owners, and a failure to meet them is often the center of the case. Owners are required to install and maintain working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in each apartment, to keep exits, stairwells, and fire escapes clear and usable, to maintain self-closing doors in apartments and stairwells so a fire in one unit does not fill the building with smoke, to keep sprinkler and standpipe systems in service where the building has them, and to give tenants fire safety notices explaining what to do in that building. They also have to correct hazardous conditions the City has cited.
When people die in a New York City fire, it is frequently because smoke moved through a door that was supposed to close on its own, or because an alarm had no battery. Those are provable failures, not bad luck.
Often several parties are, and the list depends on the cause. It can include the building owner, the landlord or the managing agent, the superintendent's employer, a contractor or plumber who did the work, the utility, a product manufacturer, distributor, or retailer, a repair shop, a commercial tenant such as a restaurant or a shop, a delivery or logistics company, and the general contractor when the fire started during construction work. Where the building is public housing, a school, or another City property, that agency belongs in the case too, on a much shorter deadline. Our fire and explosion lawyers also look at premises liability theories against anyone who controlled the space where the fire began.
You still have a claim, and you have to move faster. Claims against the Housing Authority, the City, a school authority, or another public agency generally require a written notice of claim within 90 days of the fire, with the lawsuit on a compressed schedule after that. Families dealing with hospitalization, funerals, and displacement routinely miss that window without ever being told it existed. If the building was public, treat the deadline as immediate and see a municipal liability lawyer right away.
These cases are won by getting to the scene and the records before both are gone. The proof includes the Fire Department's fire marshal cause and origin findings, the incident and EMS records, an independent cause and origin examination by engineers retained for you, and the physical evidence itself, including the appliance, battery, charger, wiring, gas piping, meter, or door hardware involved.
The paper record is just as important. Buildings Department and Housing Preservation violation histories, 311 complaints, prior fire and inspection reports, alarm and sprinkler inspection and service records, boiler and gas permits and sign-offs, utility records of reported odors and service calls, work permits and hot work authorizations, leases and management agreements, and any recall notices on the product involved all establish what the owner knew and when. Video from the building and the block, and neighbors who complained before the fire, fill in the rest.
Scenes get gutted, sealed, and rebuilt quickly, and insurers for the owner and the product maker send investigators within days. Written preservation demands are the first thing our fire and explosion lawyers send out.
These are among the most severe injuries in any kind of case:
Burn recovery is measured in years, and the emotional weight of a fire is part of the harm the law recognizes, not something separate from it. Survivors also carry the loss of everything they owned and the disruption of being displaced, and those losses belong in the claim.
Yes. A tenant hurt in a fire can sue the owner and the managing agent, and living in an illegally converted apartment or a room in a subdivided unit does not take that right away. If anything, an illegal conversion, a partition that blocked an exit, or a basement unit with no second way out is evidence of the owner's failure rather than the tenant's. Guests, visitors, neighbors in adjoining buildings, and people on the street hurt by a blast have claims as well.
Workers' compensation covers your treatment and part of your wages regardless of fault, and it usually bars a claim against your own employer. It does not bar a case against the building owner, the general contractor, another trade, a utility, or the maker of the equipment that caused the fire, and that separate case is where the recovery for pain, disfigurement, and full lost earnings comes from. Delivery workers hurt by a battery fire at home or in a charging space may also have claims beyond compensation. Our fire and explosion lawyers run both tracks and handle the compensation lien at the end.
Get medical care first, then protect what is left of the proof.
In most cases you have three years from the date of the fire to file a lawsuit, and two years from the date of death in a fatal case. If a public agency such as the Housing Authority or the City is involved, a written notice of claim is usually due within 90 days. Product claims and claims involving a utility can carry their own requirements. Because the scene is repaired, demolished, or discarded long before any of those deadlines, the practical clock is measured in days.
No lawyer can promise a number, but a claim can pursue:
Fire cases also involve insurance on several sides at once, including the building's liability coverage, a product maker's coverage, and sometimes a tenant's or a business's own policy. Sorting out which one pays for what is part of the case rather than something you should be doing from a hospital room.
Nothing up front. Our fire and explosion lawyers work on a contingency fee, so the fee comes out of the recovery and there is no fee unless there is a recovery. The first consultation is free and carries no obligation.
Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower carries the case so you and your family can deal with treatment and rebuilding. Our fire and explosion lawyers:
Our fire and explosion lawyers prepare every case as if a jury will hear it, because that is what makes owners, manufacturers, and their insurers take the claim seriously. Settlement on the right number is welcome. Settlement on a number that shortchanges what the fire cost you is not.
A fire scene is cleared and rebuilt fast, and the evidence that proves what caused it goes with it. If you were burned or injured, or you lost someone, reach out today. The consultation is free, and Korman Lynch Lustig & Sassower does not get paid unless you do.
Call us at (212) 732-4992 24/7 to arrange to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your case, or contact us through our website today.
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