A building collapse in Northwest D.C. highlights agency flaws

Two years ago, a fire at 708 Kennedy St. left a 40-year-old man and a 9-year-old boy dead. The building was an unlicensed rooming house with numerous potential “life safety violations” including “make shift doors with locks which would make it difficult to exit in an emergency,” a police officer notified DCRA and the fire department months before the fire. DCRA, it turns out, had gone to the hazardous property, couldn’t get inside, and closed the case.