At about 12:30 last night, I thought something was burning in my house. It seemed strongest where I was, near my window. Peeping Toms were probably rather surprised to see me sniffing at cords and my laptop. Not my most dignified moment. But I couldn't figure it out. Foiled, I eventually unplugged some electronics, finished my work, and went to bed. It wasn't just a bad cord. It was the first five-alarm blaze DC has seen since 1970, happening right up the street. The fire ripped through an apartment building that housed about 120 people, most of them Spanish-speaking immigrants who've been battling with the landlord to fix electrical, plumbing, and structural problems for years.Graham said the problems at the building had been typical of those described in a recent Washington Post investigative series about landlords who let their buildings deteriorate over the last two decades in an effort to force low-paying tenants to leave. Once vacant, the buildings are often converted to higher-priced residences, skirting the District's tenant-protection laws."This is a building where every effort has been made for many years to force the tenants out. To make conditions so miserable that they would leave. This is the classic example of eviction by neglect," Graham said.Apparently, the landlord had recently improved, and the dispute was nearly settled. Now those 120 folks are homeless, their possessions incinerated, their passports and documentation and medication gone. And it all happened in one night.(Photo by Mt. Pleasant resident Brandon Wu.)
