© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Building Manager Pleads Guilty To Schenectady Fire

Picture of a judge's gavel
WikiMedia Commons

The former building manager of a multi-family structure across from Schenectady City Hall that burned three years ago has pleaded guilty to four counts of criminally negligent homicide.

The Daily Gazette reports 39-year-old Jason Sacks of Scotia faces 1 to 3 years in state prison at sentencing in March.

Investigators determined that an unattended candle or cigarette sparked the March 2015 fire that consumed 104 Jay Street. An alarm system had failed to activate.

The fire killed four and left 60 homeless.

The newspaper reports Sacks was accused of failing to maintain the building's fire detection system, tampering with or disturbing the fire detection and alarm system while the system was not being monitored and allowing the building to operate without fire doors in hallway stairwells.

Former city code inspector Kenneth Tyree also faces manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. His trial is set to begin in February.

Lucas Willard is a reporter and host at WAMC Northeast Public Radio, which he joined in 2011.
Related Content