As the winter storm bears down on New York City, a single mother living on the third floor of her building in Brooklyn is resorting to desperate measures to keep her family warm after their furnace stopped working a week ago.
Furner Marquis has been boiling water to bathe her family since she woke up one morning last week to find her Crown Heights apartment freezing, with no heat coming from the radiator or from the tap.
She said she's been in constant contact with the company that manages the building on Ralph Avenue, and the couple of days she spent waiting for repairs turned into more than a week, with still no fix.
Now her young son and two nieces are spending all their time in the bedroom, where two space heaters are plugged in.
"I'm frustrated, not for me, for my kids," said Marquis. "They can't come and play, they're stuck in the room."
"I said, 'I have my kids in here, we're getting sick,'" she said of her conversation with the building management.
According to its website, Silvershore Properties recently purchased the building. Records show there are five active boiler violations on file with the Department of Buildings, the most recent in 2013.
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Several messages were left with the company Thursday night.
As the storm moves in, "I'm scared that snowing, freezing -- and that the portable heater I have won't work," she said. "It's not going to be enough, and then what are we going to do?"
Marquis said it got down to 62 degrees at one point this past week. She's hoping the company will get the repairs done Friday before the snow starts falling.
UPDATE: After NBC 4's report ran Thursday night, Silvershore Properties reached out to Marquis and told her it will pay for a hotel for her and the young children until the heat is fixed Monday, Marquis told NBC 4 Friday.
