Oakland Tribune

Carbon monoxide detectors up for Berkeley council vote
December 07, 1999

By Cecily Burt and William Brand
STAFF WRITERS

BERKELEY — While the City Council is poised tonight to make carbon monoxide detectors mandatory in Berkeley apartment buildings, officials continue to keep a close eye on the building where a young immigrant died of the deadly gas the day before Thanksgiving.

Detectors are being installed at the building and a special contractor is working on venting problems that caused the death, city officials said.

In a twist of irony, city rent control officials confirmed that the building owner, L.B. Reddy, had lived in the second floor apartment at 2020 Bancroft Way with the 17-year-old girl who died, but had been trying to move with her and two other roommates to another unit.

He had served an eviction notice Nov. 8 on residents of a bigger fourth-floor apartment, planning to move in there.

"We wish to move into this unit No. 405 because it is a two-bedroom apartment," Reddy wrote. "We currently occupy a one-bedroom apartment (No. 228) at the same complex, which is too small for myself and three other roommates."

The fourth-floor apartment had a carbon monoxide warning detector installed last year, one of the residents, Kaye Ashe, said.

Ashe and her co-tenant — both sisters in the Roman Catholic Dominican Order — said another fourth-floor resident had complained of headaches last year. No carbon monoxide was found, Ashe said, but the former owner of the building installed detectors in all fourth-floor apartments, though apparently not on other floors.

Seetha Vemireddy died on Nov. 24 and her 15-year-old sister was hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning from a blocked heater vent in the second-floor apartment. Reddy the other 20-year-old roommate were not in the apartment at the time.

Deputy City Manager Weldon Rucker said carbon monoxide detectors were to be installed in all 106 apartments in the Bancroft Way building by the end of work Monday.

However, Bill White, a Berkeley police commissioner who lives on the second floor a few doors from where Vemireddy died, said workers had not yet installed a detector in his apartment.

White's apartment was one of 26 units found to have hazardous levels of the colorless, odorless gas.

The L.B. Reddy Estate Co. owns several apartment buildings throughout Berkeley. Reddy confirmed Monday that he did live in the same apartment where Vemireddy died.

"It is a tragedy," he said. "Yes, I was there that night."

Reddy also said Monday that the eviction was canceled and everyone was staying put.

Rucker said Reddy and his two roommates had returned to live in apartment 228. Gas has been disconnected in all 26 apartments, where a hazard was determined, and tenants are using electric heaters.

Marjorie Gelb, executive director of the city's Rent Stabilization Board, said Reddy had filed a copy of the eviction with the rent board as required by law. She also said rent board staff had informed him in writing that it was an illegal eviction.

Rucker said the council will most likely approve the carbon monoxide legislation, despite the fact that several questions remain about the reliability of the units, and the definition of what level of the gas is unsafe. The last thing the city wants is to give residents a false sense of security, he said.

"We want to make sure standards are met," he said.