Building manager: Hot water now within legal limits

LYNN ? The building manager for an apartment where two young boys suffered severe burns says the hot water that scalded them has now been set well within legal limits.
In a letter dated Thursday to Lynn Plumbing Inspector Paul Flores obtained by The Daily Item, the president of Affordable Housing Associates of Lynn asserts that, as of 5 p.m. on Wednesday, all showers at 263-265 Essex St. have been set at 112 degrees. The legal minimum is 110 degrees.
The letter from James Toomey states that the settings now fall within the the state sanitary code, which says that hot water should be no higher than 130 degrees. Flores told The Daily Item that the water temperature at the time of the two boys’ scalding on Wednesday morning was 131 degrees and said he would notify the building manager.
Meanwhile, a Boston radio station reported that a baby sitter may be changing his story over an incident in which two young boys were severely scalded in a bathtub on Wednesday.
WBZ this morning, citing law enforcement sources, reported that the 21-year-old man who was baby sitting the boys ages 3 and 18 months may have fallen asleep while watching the boys and was awakened by their screams from scalding water from a bathtub. The Daily Item has reported that the baby sitter initially told police that he crossed the hall to use the bathroom.
Charles Collins, a 263 Essex St. resident, told The Daily Item on Wednesday the boys live with their father in one of the building’s apartments across the hall from the apartment where Collins and his son, also named Charles, live. Collins said his son, 21, was getting the boys “ready for day care” and crossed the hallway to his apartment to use the bathroom. Collins said when his son returned to the boys’ apartment, the older child had turned on the hot water.
The boys are now being treated at Shriners Burns Hospital in Boston, according to the WBZ report. They were taken by helicopter from Lynn on Wednesday morning to Massachusetts General Hospital.The Daily Item staff will be providing updates on this continuing story throughout the day.