July 5, 2006
A "Collyer Mansion" Situation
On Monday, there was a terrible three-alarm fire in a Queens apartment that seriously injured its tenant, Vycheslav Nekrasov. Nekrasov's apartment was so full of odds and ends (a super called it "a warehouse of junk") that firefighters weren't able to immediately open the door, so they cut a hole from the upstairs apartment floor to get in. Nekrasov's neighbors had complained about the smell coming from the apartment ("like a dead body") repeatedly and apparently the Health Department was supposed to visit today! Instead, a couple residents and firefithers were injured and the apartment is burned out, with debris falling into another neighboring apartment whose wall was cut down to get to the fire.
So, today, the NY Times looks at what the Fire Department calls these crap-filled apartments. They are called "Collyer Mansions" after the infamous Collyer brothers and their Fifth Avenue home.
Thomas Von Essen, a former New York City fire commissioner, said that the term communicated crucial information to new firefighters. "What's dangerous is that all this stuff could fall down," he said. "Or it could weaken the floors, and when you put water on it you could have a collapse. You could fall into it and then you have a hard time getting out. You could get caught behind it; your mask could get tangled. I could guarantee you that people have gotten hurt in those kinds of situations."On the West Coast, they apparently call those situations "Habitrail houses" and an EMT tells the Times he sees lots of Collyer Mansions while on the job.
As for the Collyer brothers, they lived at the turn of the 20th century. According to Wikipedia, they collected tons of junk in their brownstone, and in 1947, the police found brother Homer dead and then found brother Langley's body weeks later, trapped under debris. Langley had taken care of Homer, so when Langley died, Homer starved to death. Franz Lidz wrote a book about them, Ghostly Men, and unsurprisingly, it's bundled with Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding on Amazon.
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Langley Collyer didn't just happen to die. Their home was not only filled with tons of junk but with trip wires. Langley apparently triggered one, and tons of junk came crashing down on him. Homer, who I think was in a wheelchair, then starved to death.
I think that's correct, about how the Collyers died -
The book Ghosty Men is sadly terrible. It's such an interesting story but the book is unfocused and poorly written. The author alternate between chapters about the Collyer brothers and about a relative of his with a hoarding problem, and he has little insight about either topic.
I work EMS and can confirm that we see these on a semi-regular basis.
These are among the worst places you get called to. It is AWFUL.
Dirty, malodorous, and usually lots of little things crawling around. And that is not referring to the patient (although those adjectives apply in most of the situations in these apartments too).
NASTY.
I work EMS and can confirm that we see these on a semi-regular basis.
These are among the worst places you get called to. It is AWFUL.
Dirty, malodorous, and usually lots of little things crawling around. And that is not referring to the patient (although those adjectives apply in most of the situations in these apartments too).
NASTY.
There are also animal hoarders, who have like 200 cats.
Oh yeah, here is that famous crazy ebay lady hoarder:
http://www.auctions-registration.com/ebay/
so, do these people with hoarding tendencies - cats, papers, whatever - have anything in common - i'm assuming, you know, some really traumatic emotional experience or something? or is it all over the map? any amateur (or real) experts out there? i'm sorry, but honestly, it is as fascinating as it is sad.
It's probably all over the map, though I'd be interested in knowing this myself. A very close family member of mine is like this, and take it from me, it sucks pretty hard, and next to impossible to get them to change their ways.
here's one about a rat hoarder... disturbing
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/06/29/rat_man_says_nature_overwhelmed_him/
My Dad is a retired firefighter and I always thought he called them "Collier Fires" because of the stacks of magazine (Collier Magazine). 29 years later the NYT bursts my bubble.
Squalor Survivors is a fascinating website that deals with these folks, both horders and just plain messy people. It has first hand stories and pictures.
thanks, kimdog. it is fascinating and seems like it might actually be helpful to those with hoarding problems.