Officials say a Brooklyn apartment house where five people died in a fire last month had been chopped up into more units than allowed by law, eliminating access to a fire escape for some tenants.
Authorities say as many as 20 Guatemalan immigrants were crowded into tenements on two floors above a restaurant in the small building in Brooklyn's Bensonhurst section.
New York City's building department issued three civil citations to the building's owner Friday for violations including failing to provide two means of egress.
Each infraction could carry up to $25,000 in fines.
