NY firefighters evacuate migrant shelter over fears former school will turn into a fiery deathtrap after Mayor Eric Adams failed to listen to safety concerns

An emergency migrant shelter in Staten Island has been evacuated after the fire department deemed it unsafe, with former officials warning it could become a death trap.

Migrant families were seen moving out of the shelter set up at the former St. John Villa Academy Catholic school on Monday as they waited to be moved elsewhere. It comes after the NYFD inspected the grounds on Sunday and found too many code violations, including a lack of a sprinkler system or fire alarm. 

City officials say the fire department also found code violations at about half a dozen other shelters which are expected to shut down this week.  It's not clear where the asylum seekers will be moved to. DailyMail.com has reached out to mayor Eric Adam's office for comment. 

The shelter at the Catholic institution was originally supposed to house 300 migrants but the city reduced that number to 170 after the community opposed the move, arguing a shelter did not belong in the neighborhood, across from a girls school.

A judge had ordered mayor Eric Adams to remove the migrants in September, deciding the Right to Shelter law did not apply to migrants, but the Democrat pledged to appeal the decision .

Migrant families were seen moving out of the shelter set up at the former St. John Villa Academy Catholic school on Monday

The emergency migrant shelter in Staten Island was evacuated after the fire department deemed it unsafe

The shelter at the Catholic institution was originally supposed to house 300 migrants but the city reduced that number to 170 after the community opposed the move

As more than 120,000 new migrants have arrived in the city since last year, officials have turned to tent facilities, school gyms and parks to comply with a state law requiring housing for the homeless. Though Staten Island is home to only a small fraction of those shelters, they have generated an outsize share of animosity.

The New York Post reported earlier this month that former NYPD cops and firefighters had been hired as 'fire wardens' at some of the migrant shelters because of fire safety fears.

'This is a dangerous situation for both migrants and firefighters who may have to respond to these locations,' a law enforcement official told the outlet. 'No location should ever lower the fire codes to house anyone... It is a recipe for disaster.'

The former Catholic school's grounds have been a center for protests as residents of Staten Island were enraged at the shelter's placement. 

Last month, one upset resident even set up a loudspeaker to deliver an unwelcoming message to his new neighbors at the former school: 'Immigrants are not safe here.' 

The message, recorded in six languages, blared all day from a loudspeaker on Scott Herkert's well-groomed front lawn on Staten Island, exhorting migrants to 'go back' to another part of the city because the community doesn´t want them. 

It urged people brought to a temporary shelter inside a long-vacant Roman Catholic high school not to get off the bus. The message also claims the building has rats and cockroaches. 

The former school's grounds have been a center for protests as residents of the area were enraged at the shelter's placement

Hundreds of protesters also held a large rally outside the former school, urging the city to house migrants elsewhere

It is one of several ways some people have let shelter residents know they are not welcome. Hundreds of protesters also held a large rally outside the former school, urging the city to house migrants elsewhere. 

Staten Island is known for leaning conservative and Republican in a mostly liberal, Democratic city. 

Tensions also erupted at the former Island Shores Assisted Living Facility when the city turned it into n emergency shelter. 

Protesters were seen banging on the bus windows as they tried to prevent the migrants from disembarking and entering the shelter. 

Police said an officer suffered a knee injury when one of the protesters, area resident Vadim Dlyakov, resisted arrest. Dlyakov, who lives a block from the assisted living facility, was charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and obstructing government administration, as reported by The New York Daily News.

Last week it emerged that mayor Adams will limit shelter stays for migrant families with children to 60 days as the city continues to be overwhelmed with a surge of asylum seekers.

The Democrat had already placed a 30-day limit for shelter stays for adult migrants back in July.

Like migrant adults, migrant families who can't find housing on their own will be able to return to the arrival center at The Roosevelt Hotel and reapply for shelter placement, a source told the Daily News.

The historic hotel in Manhattan - dubbed 'the new Ellis Island' by one city official - has become the registering point for the migrants and is currently housing 3,000 asylum seekers.

The city has a Right to Shelter law that Adams is desperately trying to amend as over 62,000 migrants remain in shelters - a year after he said he was proud to live in a Right to Shelter state.

The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless called the move 'a stain on our city's long-standing reputation as a welcoming home for all.'

Adams had heralded the shelter requirement at the start of the crisis as a display of the city's empathy toward asylum seekers. In the months since, his rhetoric has hardened as the city has spent more than a billion dollars to rent space in hotels, erect large emergency shelters and provide government services for migrants who arrive without housing or jobs.

'This issue will destroy New York City,' Adams said last month.

Governor Kathy Hochul, who also first welcomed asylum seekers last year, is supporting the city's effort to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to homeless people.

The shelter requirement has been in place for more than four decades in New York City, following a legal agreement that required the city to provide temporary housing for every homeless person. No other big city in America has such a requirement.