East Germantown block gets fumigation help

CITY WORKERS in hazmat suits fumigated a house in East Germantown yesterday, the same day the Daily News wrote about neighbors' complaints of mice and roaches from that house swarming 12 other homes on the block.

Rebecca Swanson, spokeswoman for the Department of Licenses and Inspections, said the city took immediate action yesterday after a caretaker of the homeowner admitted the woman was still living there and that he was unable to fumigate it. Neighbors said they thought the woman had moved out, leaving the home with piles of garbage inside.

Swanson said the city acted because of the new information from the caretaker, not because of the newspaper story.

"We get 1,500 infestation cases a year and we don't have the money and the resources to take extraordinary measures" as the city took yesterday, Swanson said.

She added that the city would bill the owner of the house, on 19th Street near Chew, for the fumigation. L&I inspectors had visited the home three times since April.

At the first visit, the inspector didn't see an infestation. There were two more inspections where the house was cited, in May and again in June.

Swanson said city law requires that property owners be given 30 days between inspections to correct a problem. A third inspection was to take place on Wednesday.

Vicki Mines, who lives next door to the infested house, said she was at work when a neighbor called to say city trucks had arrived on the block.

"I started crying," Mines said. "But they were tears of joy. I just felt like a weight was lifted, like my prayers have been answered."

Swanson said that yesterday was the first time the caretaker gave the city permission to enter the house.

Mark McDonald, a spokesman for Mayor Nutter, said the Vector Control section of the Health Department fumigated the property and will fumigate it a second time. The city will also fumigate the houses on either side.

L&I removed bags of trash from the house, he said.