WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) — A D.C. man was convicted on Thursday in the deaths of two people who died in a house fire in 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) announced .
At the time of the fatal fire, 67-year-old James G. Walker owned an illegal “rooming house” at 708 Kennedy St. NW. The commercial property did not have a certificate of occupancy and the structure violated several fire safety codes.
Some of the rooms in the building were too small for someone to live in; some had no windows and Walker failed to install or maintain functional smoke alarms throughout the building, including the basement, the USAO stated.
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There was also no unobstructed way to escape the building in case of an emergency…