The Harlem public housing apartment where six family members died in a massive blaze was a death trap that could never be built today — and thousands of Big Apple units pose a similar risk, an expert said Thursday. Building plans obtained by The Post show the Frederick Samuel Houses unit’s layout placed nearly all emergency exits next to the kitchen, which was reduced to cinders after the blaze sparked from an unattended stove there early Wednesday. “That’s a really bad design. You couldn’t build it this way today,” John Jay College associate professor of fire science Glenn Corbett said. “You’ve always got to have two ways out.” One window leading to the fifth-floor fire escape is just feet from the kitchen — another is tucked away in a bathroom. The victims — mother Andrea Pollidore, 45, her kids Elijah Pollidore, 3; Brook-Lynn Pollidore, 6; Andre Pollidore, 8; Nakyra Pollidore, 11, and stepson, Mac Abdularaulph, 33 — were found in two bedrooms on the opposite side of the apartment from the fire escapes. Corbett estimated there are “thousands” of old Big Apple residences that have inadequate exits that are allowed to persist because they were constructed before modern building laws. “This is not unique to this building, this is a problem in a lot of places where if a fire breaks out between you and the exit, you’re out of options,” he said. Building rules now require two distinct exits for every unit, but the 1910 building — like so many others in the city — has been grandfathered in. Still, NYCHA should have done more to address the issue when it renovated the structure in 1994, Corbett said. “When organizations like NYCHA rehabilitate them, they’ve got to take a much closer look at the safety,” he said. While a 1968 law bars the installation of new fire escapes, the city could have at least installed fire sprinklers, which suppress the flames and buy occupants time to escape, he said. see also Firefighter recalls desperate bid to save family killed in Harlem fire The FDNY firefighter who was captured on video trying desperately... “A lot of older, existing buildings like this have problems like this that haven’t been addressed,” he said. “One way to address them is sprinklers.” Instead, the family was boxed in by the blaze. “How can they get out if the fire happened in the kitchen?” raged Raven Reyes, 27, another daughter of Pollidore’s who was not there at the time of the fire. Photos released Thursday revealed just how badly the inferno gutted the kitchen — with the blackened stove where it all started slumped over in the middle of the room. “I’ve never seen an apartment that badly burnt in my life,” a NYCHA maintenance worker who specializes in fire cleanup said at the scene. A surviving son pointed blame at the housing authority for not making the apartment safer. “They should have been able to get out of the apartment,” Hakeem Pollidore, 30, said of his lost family members. “New York City has responsibility f
The Harlem public housing apartment where six family members died in a massive blaze was a death trap that could never be built today — and thousands of Big Apple units pose a similar risk, an expert said Thursday. Building plans obtained by The Post show the Frederick Samuel Houses unit’s layout placed nearly all emergency exits next to the kitchen, which was reduced to cinders after the blaze sparked from an unattended stove there early Wednesday. “That’s a really bad design. You couldn’t build it this way today,” John Jay College associate professor of fire science Glenn Corbett said. “You’ve always got to have two ways out.” One window leading to the fifth-floor fire escape is just feet from the kitchen — another is tucked away in a bathroom. The victims — mother Andrea Pollidore, 45, her kids Elijah Pollidore, 3; Brook-Lynn Pollidore, 6; Andre Pollidore, 8; Nakyra Pollidore, 11, and stepson, Mac Abdularaulph, 33 — were found in two bedrooms on the opposite side of the apartment from the fire escapes. Corbett estimated there are “thousands” of old Big Apple residences that have inadequate exits that are allowed to persist because they were constructed before modern building laws. “This is not unique to this building, this is a problem in a lot of places where if a fire breaks out between you and the exit, you’re out of options,” he said. Building rules now require two distinct exits for every unit, but the 1910 building — like so many others in the city — has been grandfathered in. Still, NYCHA should have done more to address the issue when it renovated the structure in 1994, Corbett said. “When organizations like NYCHA rehabilitate them, they’ve got to take a much closer look at the safety,” he said. While a 1968 law bars the installation of new fire escapes, the city could have at least installed fire sprinklers, which suppress the flames and buy occupants time to escape, he said. see also Firefighter recalls desperate bid to save family killed in Harlem fire The FDNY firefighter who was captured on video trying desperately... “A lot of older, existing buildings like this have problems like this that haven’t been addressed,” he said. “One way to address them is sprinklers.” Instead, the family was boxed in by the blaze. “How can they get out if the fire happened in the kitchen?” raged Raven Reyes, 27, another daughter of Pollidore’s who was not there at the time of the fire. Photos released Thursday revealed just how badly the inferno gutted the kitchen — with the blackened stove where it all started slumped over in the middle of the room. “I’ve never seen an apartment that badly burnt in my life,” a NYCHA maintenance worker who specializes in fire cleanup said at the scene. A surviving son pointed blame at the housing authority for not making the apartment safer. “They should have been able to get out of the apartment,” Hakeem Pollidore, 30, said of his lost family members. “New York City has responsibility f
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