A worker was injured and a fire broke out in the cellar of 191 Clinton Street in Brooklyn Heights during unpermitted work to remove a gas boiler, according to three Environmental Control Board violations the Department of Buildings issued on September 30.
The violations, served against 'the owner of 191 Clinton Street,' describe a fire at the cellar level 'caused by associated gas work in progress' during removal of a gas boiler, piping, and venting, with no permit on file for the work. A companion violation issued the same day describes the fire as tied to electrical wiring work in progress to remove an oil boiler — also without a permit. Both carry the maximum Class 1 penalty of $12,500 each. A third violation issued in the same inspection cites the building for lacking required fire-stopping at the cellar electrical and gas room, under Building Code sections governing code-compliant maintenance.
All three violations are listed under BIN 3250408, block 00286, lot 7501, and remain active with hearings scheduled for December 9 at Environmental Control Board offices, per DOB's ECB violations dataset. Total penalties proposed across the three violations reach $17,500, none of it yet paid, records show.
The violation descriptions do not name the injured worker, the contractor performing the mechanical or electrical work, or the extent of the injury. DOB's public ECB data does not include that level of detail, and no FDNY incident report or additional DOB filing was available at this writing to supplement it.
For contractors, this is a reminder that permit status is checked after the fact, not just before a crew shows up. Unpermitted boiler removal and associated gas or electrical work is exactly the kind of job that looks routine until it isn't — and ECB shows the agency treating both the fire and the missing paperwork as separate, maximum-penalty violations rather than letting the paperwork lapse quietly into a lesser citation.
Anyone pulling permits at this address or doing similar boiler-removal work should confirm gas and electrical permits are filed and active before cutting into existing piping — DOB's active violations and complaint history for a BIN are searchable through the DOB NOW public portal. The hearings are scheduled for December 9, 2026; the record remains open until then.