Tenant angry after hot steam from broken pipe repeatedly leaks into NYC apartment
By Lucy Yang
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QUEENS, New York (WABC) — A man is fed up over a broken pipe that has repeatedly released hot steam into his apartment in Queens since Saturday.
A steam bath at a spa can be luxurious, but when hot steam fills your entire apartment day after day it is a nightmare.
“The first time I thought it was a fire. I’m running around looking. And I ran to the kitchen. Nothing was on. Then I see all this steam smoke coming up clouding the whole room and my bedroom,” tenant Rondu Allah said.
Allah says he has woken up to intense steam on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday mornings.
He has asthma and worries about the air he’s breathing.
On Tuesday, Allah put plastic over his belongings and moved them away from the heater.
He was promised a plumber would finally come Wednesday to fix the pipe under his floor.
“If they have to chop up all this floor, where am I going to move all my furniture to?” Allah said.
Even worse, the 68-year-old tenant says it’s not just steam that’s coming from the broken pipe.
“The steam has been off since this morning but the air is still heavy and humid and the floor is still warm to the touch,” he said.
Allah pays $1,700 a month for his one-bedroom on Lefferts Blvd in Queens.
He’s lived there for more than a decade and says this happened several years ago.
They tore up his floor then and were supposed to have fixed the problem.
Except here he is, living in a hot bath again.
“The super broke this tv. They said they’re going to get a new one,” Allah said.
He has called the super and the fire department.
Every time, they turn off the heat but when the temperature dips below 55, it goes right back on.
The management company assures Eyewitness News that help is coming in the morning.
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