HOULTON, Maine — A high-profile Philadelphia-based personal injury lawyer is now representing the couple with ties to the Houlton area, whose two children were fatally scalded by radiator steam on Dec. 7, 2016 in a New York City apartment for the homeless.
Robert J. Mongeluzzi, a founding partner of the law firm Saltz, Mongeluzzi, Barrett and Bendesky, said in a written statement issued this week that he is representing Danielle and Peter Ambrose, whose daughters Scylee, 1, and Ibanez, 2, died from their injuries.
“Danielle and Peter have asked us to do everything possible to find out how this tragedy occurred and to ensure that in the future other families aren’t forced to endure this type of suffering in preventable tragedies like this,” Mongeluzzi said in the release.
To ease crowding at shelters during a time of record-high homelessness in New York, the city has used such apartment buildings, known as “cluster sites,” for temporary housing. But their use has come under increasing fire because of poor maintenance and oversight, the New York Times reported the day the toddlers died.
While the case remains under investigation, police and fire officials have indicated a radiator valve apparently blew off, spewing steam into the girls’ bedroom. The parents did not realize what happened until it was too late.
The city medical examiner’s office said the girls died from overheating andthermal injuries from exposure to steam and ruled the deaths an accident, according to the Times.
Mongeluzzi said in his release that he and his team of attorneys and forensic experts will be reviewing all relevant records and physical evidence “to get to the truth on behalf of the Ambrose family, friends, and people of New York. There is no excuse for this type of abysmal building maintenance, which threatens the safety of everyone in apartment buildings like this.”
Danielle and Peter Ambrose also issued a statement through the attorney.
“We are touched by the outpouring of love and support from literally Maine to New York and around the country,” they said in the statement. “And we are stronger knowing people join us in mourning the loss of our daughters and share our desire to do whatever is possible to ensure that no other family can ever experience this kind of unimaginable pain.”
Neither Mongeluzzi nor the Ambroses could be reached for further comment. Members of the media were not allowed to attend services for the two girls held Tuesday at the Donald Dunn Funeral Home in Houlton.
The parents told the Times earlier this month that they moved to the city last year to find better opportunity.
Mongeluzzi, who is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, represents victims injured or killed in catastrophic incidents. Among several high-profile cases he has been involved in, Mongeluzzi and lead attorney Larry Bendesky helped reach a settlement worth more than $101 million in litigation stemming from the October 2003 collapse of the Tropicana Casino parking garage in Atlantic City that killed four construction workers and injured 30 others.
