HOULTON, Maine — More than two years after two toddler girls were scalded to death by radiator steam in a city funded apartment in New York, their parents are still awaiting justice.
Peter Ambrose and Danielle McGuire Ambrose, former Houlton residents, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in New York City last last year alleging that negligence led to the deaths of their children, daughters Scylee, 1, and Ibanez, 2.
After moving to New York City in 2015 to start a new life, they sought out services for the homeless and were placed in cluster-site apartments. The units, meant for temporary residency, were created to ease record homelessness in New York. Both girls were sleeping in the same room on Dec. 7, 2016, when a valve ruptured on a radiator in their Hunts Point Avenue apartment, sending steam and intense heat flooding into their bedroom.
Scylee Ambrose (Courtesy of Dunn Funeral Home)
Peter Ambrose reportedly was asleep in another room at the time and Danielle McGuire Ambrose had gone out to run errands that morning. She found the girls in the steam filled room after she returned and went to wake them.
The city medical examiner’s office said the girls died from overheating and thermal injuries from exposure to steam and ruled the deaths accidental.
The lawsuit names the owner of the building, Moshe Piller, and the Bushwick Economic Development Corporation as defendants.
Prior to the accident, Mayor Bill de Blasio had criticized the use of cluster-site housing for shelters because of repeated problems with them and vowed to end the practice.
Jeffrey Goodman, a Philadelphia based attorney for the law firm Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett and Bendesky, said in a recent interview that the case is still winding its way through the court system and no dates have yet been set for possible proceedings.
He said that the couple had left New York and moved back to Maine.
It is unclear to where in Maine they moved and efforts to contact them through social media have been unsuccessful.
“The family just wishes to be left alone as they continue to deal with their enormous grief,” Goodman said.
According to city officials, the building where the incident occurred is no longer housing homeless families.
