Eight homeless young people died in New Orleans this week when the abandoned warehouse they were squatting in went up in flames and they were overcome by carbon monoxide. The five men and three women, ranging in age from their teens to early 20s, were burning trash in a barrel in an attempt to keep warm on one of the coldest nights of the year. Two dogs were also killed in the fire.

 

The young victims were what are known as “trainhoppers”—not runaways, but the 21st century equivalent of Depression-era young travelers who kept in touch with their parents. One of the first victims to be identified was 17-year-old Melissa Martinez, who worked at a local café. Teresa Reiger, pastor of the nearby St. Luke's Assembly of God church, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that people who slept at the abandoned warehouse often showered and ate at the church.

 

The owner of the warehouse, listed as Alfred J. Schorling, had been fined for code violations in 2007, but, although slated for demolition, the building had not been re-inspected since then.

 

The blaze in the upper 9th Ward was the city’s worst since June 1973, when 32 people died in a second-story bar fire in the French Quarter. In March 2005, eleven members of a family were killed in a house fire in the New Orleans suburb of Marrero.

 

New Orleans has 3,000 to 6,000 homeless people living in abandoned buildings according to an August 2010 report by Unity of Greater New Orleans.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

The First Four Warehouse Fire Victims to be Identified were from Out of State (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Toll of Eight Lives in 9th Ward Fire is Highest in New Orleans in Decades (by Laura Maggi, New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Eight Homeless Youth Die in New Orleans Fire - What Does It Say About US? (by Bill Quigley, Truthout)