22 migrant workers escape house fire in Western NC

FAN worked for two legislative sessions to improve North Carolina’s law that sets the standards for bathing, cooking, and sleeping facilities for farmworkers who live in employer-provided housing. Modest improvements were passed in 2007.

There remains a laundry list of changes that still should be made in our state law so that farmworkers have safe and dignified places to live, including locks on windows and doors, privacy in bathrooms, better access to laundry facilities, and guaranteed access for visitors of farmworkers’ choice. Unfortunately, enforcement of even these very basic housing standards that we have today remains lax. This story shows the terrible consequences that can occur when our migrant housing laws are not adequately enforced:

CANDLER — Twenty-two people living in a house for migrant farmworkers escaped an early morning fire unharmed, authorities said Tuesday. The blaze destroyed the split-level home at the intersection of Luther Road and Smoky Park Highway near the Haywood County line, said Woody Trotter, battalion chief with Enka-Candler Fire and Rescue.

The fire broke out about 4:45 a.m., and it took firefighters from several departments about 30 minutes to put it out, he said. “It's a total loss,” Trotter said. The residents “all got out safely. They just woke up and smelled smoke.”

“They have lost everything,” said Bob Hvitfeldt, a volunteer with the Red Cross. “The house and the contents are a total loss. “We'll put them up for a few days, and we'll help them secure food and clothing,” he said....

Investigators had yet to find a smoke detector.

Read more here from the Asheville Citizen-Times.

This employer never registered this camp with the North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL), which is a required first step to house farmworkers. There were no smoke alarms, which are required by law. Had the camp been registered, NCDOL would have seen that smoke alarms were missing and presumably required the owner to install them – hopefully preventing this tragedy.

One of FAN’s priorities has been to ensure the NCDOL has the resources and the impetus to seek out unregistered housing and force camp owners and operators into compliance. Let’s get it done in 2011, before more farmworkers suffer in housing that doesn’t meet the most basic of standards.