The fire department ordered the city to vacate a shelter that had been housing migrants in Midtown on Monday, saying the former college campus did not have adequate fire protection.

What You Need To Know

  • The fire department ordered the city to vacate a former Touro College building that had been serving as a shelter for migrants

  • The order said the building did not have the kind of fire prevention system required for emergency temporary shelters in the city

  • The city had to move 130 adult men from the shelter

The shelter, located on West 31st Street, was formerly part of Touro College. On Tuesday morning, it had a vacate order on its front door. The order said the FDNY found a failure to provide a required fire alarm system with at least one-way communication, as required for temporary emergency shelters in the city. That created a condition “imminently perilous to life and property."

It was served at 12:50 p.m. and enforced at 6:50 p.m. Monday, officials said.

One resident, who did not want to show his face on camera because he was afraid to jeopardize finding new shelter, returned to the Touro College shelter Tuesday morning looking for help. Speaking in Spanish, he told NY1 he had to be been at work when the city moved the residents elsewhere.

"They told me that there was space for approximately five of us at the other shelter, and I told them that I had to work at four in the afternoon, so I couldn't travel with that group, but I didn't want to end up on the street, and if they could help relocate me somewhere else. But they assured me that I'd be able to be accommodated with the group I was in,” he said.

But when he eventually got to the other shelter, he ran into problems.

"I went there and when I arrived they told me no, that they couldn't accept me because I wasn't registered. From there they sent me back here. And I'm here talking with them, but they'll telling me to wait, first 30 minutes, then 20 minutes, and they haven't told me if they're going to relocate me or not. And I've been here already waiting two hours since I got out of work,” he said.

City Hall confirmed that 130 men had been vacated from the shelter, but did not say where they were sent.

Officials said, during the approximately three months the shelter was open, the city’s emergency management department worked with the FDNY to take action like hiring fire guards, who stand watch when a working fire prevention system is not in place.

The FDNY has been inspecting temporary emergency shelters across the city over the last several weeks, and this isn’t the first one to be evacuated: a week ago the department shut down a shelter housing families at the former St. John Villa Academy on Staten Island.