Investigation Found Rental Home Had 29 Code Violations
A man and woman pleaded guilty for the deaths of two sisters who died in a fire that took place in a house the girls’ family rented from the couple.
Peter Miller, 56, pleaded guilty to two counts of Criminal Negligent Homicide, and Pamela Miller, 55, pleaded guilty to Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree, as a result of a fatal fire that occurred at the Miller’s rental home, where sisters Lindsay Wiener, 19, and Jillian Wiener, 21, of Maryland, were vacationing with their family in 2022.
On August 2, 2022, a Maryland couple and their three children, including Lindsay and Jillian, were vacationing at the Millers’ home located in Noyac which was advertised for rent.
That evening, the family attempted to use an outdoor charcoal grill located in an outdoor kitchen that was attached to the main house. When the food did not cook, the family removed the food from the grill, closed the lid, and cooked the food in the indoor kitchen. The family ate dinner and then, at approximately 11:30 p.m., they went to sleep.
A few hours later, on August 3, 2022, at approximately 3:30 a.m., the mother and father woke up to the sound of glass shattering. When they left their bedroom to investigate, they saw a fire in the kitchen and screamed for their children to get out of the house. The couple escaped but the father re-entered the home to locate his children. The heat conditions forced him out of the house and left him with burns on his feet. The couple’s son opened his bedroom door and heard his sisters screaming, but was overwhelmed by the heat and smoke conditions and could not locate them. After realizing the fire had trapped him in his bedroom, the son jumped from a second-story window to escape.
The Sag Harbor Fire Department was the first of several fire agencies to arrive to the scene. Fire chiefs observed fire in the kitchen, thick black smoke, and intense heat. Firefighters gained access to a second-story bedroom where they located Jillian on the floor. Her sister, Lindsay, was found on the floor of the second-floor bathroom. Both women were transported to Southampton Hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
The surviving family members and responding fire personnel reported that no fire alarms were heard at any point. Investigators determined that the origin of the fire was the outdoor kitchen, which the Millers constructed on their own without a permit, and without an electrical inspection. The outdoor kitchen was mostly made of wood with low-hanging wood ceilings that sat above the charcoal grill and gas stove. The bottom grill vents of the charcoal grill were completely blocked by an attached counter, and the electrical circuits that the outdoor kitchen shared with the indoor kitchen were overloaded and improperly wired.
The Millers advertised the rental home in Noyac on multiple popular vacation rental sites. Their listing indicated that the home was equipped with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. However, an electrical inspection report revealed that they were not connected properly, and there was not adequate fire detection throughout the home.
The smoke detector in one of the second-floor bedrooms was de-energized by the fire due to overloaded electrical circuits, and no battery back-up existed. The smoke detector in another second-floor bedroom, where Lindsay and Jillian stayed, was also de-energized during the fire and did not have a functioning battery back-up. The smoke detector in the master bedroom, where the sisters’ parents stayed, was disconnected from the electrical system and did not have a battery back-up. The master bedroom and the hallway outside of it were determined not to have had adequate fire detection at the time of the fire.
The Millers were charged with 29 code violations, including:
- failing to apply for and obtain a rental permit prior to renting
- having a transient rental when prohibited by law
- having a transient rental with tenants contrary to the certificate of occupancy in place
- constructing an outdoor kitchen without a building permit, occupying/allowing a deck/pool without a certificate of occupancy
- failing to assure single/multi-station smoke detectors on the wall outside of the second-floor bedrooms
- failing to assure the smoke alarm in the second-floor east bedroom was connected properly
- failing to assure that the smoke detector in the second-floor east bedroom had a battery back-up
- failing to assure that the smoke alarm in the hallway outside of the first-floor bedroom was connected properly
- failing to assure that the smoke alarm in the hallway outside of the first-floor bedroom had a battery back-up
- failing to assure that the smoke alarm in the garage was properly connected to a power source
- failing to assure a carbon monoxide detector was installed outside of the second-floor bedrooms
- failing to assure a carbon monoxide detector was installed outside of the first-floor bedroom;
- installing an electrical outlet without a proper electrical box which created an electrical shock/fire hazard whereas it was directly on siding
- installing an electrical outlet on a counter in the outdoor kitchen without a proper electrical box, creating a shock/fire hazard, whereas it was directly on siding
The Millers were prosecuted for these code violations in Southampton Town Court.
On August 22, 2024, Peter and Pamela Miller were arrested after surrendering at the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Four days later, Peter Miller pleaded guilty to two counts of Criminally Negligent Homicide, Class E felonies, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Richard I. Horowitz. On the same day, Pamela Miller pleaded guilty to Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree, a Class A misdemeanor, before Justice Horowitz.
The Millers are due back in court on November 7, 2024.
“First and foremost, our hearts go out to the Wiener family, who lost these young women in this tragic fire. Such a loss is unimaginable, and our community mourns with them,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “We take all matters involving housing regulations very seriously, as they are crucial for public safety. If you have a rental home, you have a duty to make sure that it is safe.”