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What constitutes a fire hazard?

Asked by Dutchess_III (46858points) March 22nd, 2017

I have a FB acquaintance who says she is being “harassed” by her landlord because of how messy her apartment is. She posts about it several times a day, and says she could be evicted. This has been on going for several weeks.

She also says she’s autistic and ADHD and a bunch of other things, so people just flock to give her reassurances that she is indeed being harassed for “no reason,” and (based on what she says) her landlord is just being mean.

She finally posted a picture of one room of the house. It was her bedroom. There was shit piled up everywhere. She couldn’t even close the closet door.
I said, “Well, that’s the problem right there. It’s a fire hazard.” and offered suggestions about neatly folding the clothes and making sure they’re out of the way, organize the closet so you can shut the door, put things in plastic bins and make sure everything is against the walls. This prompted an outpouring of rage toward me from her “friends.”
One messaged me snarling, “You’ve OBVIOUSLY never been in a real hoarder’s house and that isn’t trash! There is no fire hazard!!!”
I said, “I never said she was a hoarder, and I never said the stuff is trash, but it IS a fire hazard because, worst case, there’s a fire, it’s night time, lights are out, the apartment is full of smoke, people are panicking to get out of the apartment and they’re tripping all over shit!” There was no reply to that.
I guess she thought a “fire hazard” only meant having things around that could burn.

Was I wrong? Would it really help her more if I tell her she is fine and if she gets evicted it won’t be her fault?

As of today, though, she said she got rid of 4 boxes of VHS tapes, and 5 sacks of clothes that she didn’t wear any more. For that I gave her kudos. It seems to me those are the only real steps she’s taken so far to fix the problem. If she is a hoarder, I have an idea of how difficult that must have been, so good on her.

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