The woman whose toddler sparked a 2017 Bronx blaze that killed 13 people and whose own actions might have fanned the deadly flames is now demanding a total of $1.1 billion — citing the “negligence” of others.
Rita Yeboah is seeking an eye-popping payout of $100 million from the city, her landlord, Con Ed and each of eight other entities, because her family “suffered smoke inhalation, emotional trauma and loss of property,” according to a lawsuit she and her husband Mark filed in Bronx Supreme Court.
But some of the survivors of the 13 victims, as well as former residents of 2363 Prospect Ave. in Belmont, whose lives were changed forever on the frigid night of Dec. 28, 2017, say it was Rita Yeboah who was negligent.
They say the mother of two from Ghana failed to stop her then-3-year-old son, Micaiah, from playing with the stove, where the blaze began at 6:51 p.m. that night.
Then she allegedly left her first-floor apartment door open as she raced out with her two boys, allowing air to sweep inside and feed the fatal flames. She also could have done more to alert other residents before fleeing, residents charged.
“I don’t think she should get a dime! Not a dime!” fumed Ralph Carter, 76, who lives up the block and watched the horrific scene.
A 26-year-old woman, Jo, said, “Seriously? That’s wild. I have no words. How does the city owe her a billion dollars? Isn’t it negligence on her part?”
Treasure Davis, 21, gasped: “Oh, for real? For real? No, that’s crazy, she needs to go to jail. A bunch of people lost their lives, she gets nothing. I’m sorry, but no.”
“I would kick [the mother’s] a– all over the place,” Shevan Stewart, who lost four family members in the blaze, said at the time. “You got to school your children. You and your children cost [13] people their lives.”
Among the victims was an infant and an Army private, Emmanuel Mensah, 28, who was home for the holidays after basic training and died helping neighbors get out of the burning building.
The Yeboahs claim they are victims, too.
Their suit alleges that the maker of the stove is at fault for having “knobs and valves that were too easy to turn on.”
It says fire and building inspectors allowed dangerous violations to go unchecked, including faulty self-closing doors, smoke detectors and gas meters.
The couple’s suit blame Con Ed for being “careless in the placement of the gas meters within each apartment . . . and allowed the gas meters to leak.”
They charge that the self-closing doors — meant to hinder the spread of fires from one apartment to another — didn’t automatically close in their first-floor apartment where the fire began, allowing it to spread throughout the five-story, 26-unit building. Capitol Fireproof Door Company, the maker of those doors, is named as a defendant.
And D&A Equities, which owns the building, could have prevented the fire if it had “complied with the law and maintained their building, and replaced the stove, like Mark Yeboah had requested,” according to the the couple’s lawyer, Michael Cervini, who claimed that Yeboah paid $50 to the management company for a smoke alarm but “never got it.”
The couple declined an invitation by The Post to tell their side of the story because of a “fear of repercussions,” Cervini said, adding, “This family is a pariah.”
“There’s a lot of finger-pointing going on,” he said, claiming Rita “did what she was supposed to do as a mom.” The couple “did nothing wrong,” he said, but “they’ve been convicted in the world of public opinion.”
The attorney in another lawsuit brought by 76 victims and relatives of victims, Robert Vilensky, said, “I’m not happy that Ms. Yeboah didn’t pay more attention. If she had paid more attention to her child, then the fire probably would not have occurred.”
Vilensky said the blaze and the Yeboahs’ suit was “too painful” for many of his clients to discuss.
“Every time a firetruck goes by, every time they hear sirens, they get jumpy,” Vilensky said.
The Yeboahs’ claim did not sit well with the FDNY, which sent 160 firefighters to battle the five-alarm blaze.
“This is typical, people suing the city for something that was their own fault to begin with,” an FDNY member said. “Her kid burns down the building and kills people, so taxpayers get it in the end.”
Excluding 9/11, the Bronx fire was the deadliest city fire since 87 people perished in the Happy Land social-club arson in 1990.
D&A Equities and Capitol Fireproof Door company did not return messages. A Con Ed spokesman said, “This was a tragedy and we will respond . . . in court.”
A city Law Department spokesman said, “This was a terribly tragic incident and our hearts go out to the victims and their families.”
Additional reporting by Susan Edelman, Ruth Weissmann and Khristina Narizhnaya
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