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Garbage-Covered Home In Queens Finally Gets Cleaned After Piling Up Over $300,000 In Fines

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A filthy house in Queens is finally getting cleaned up after angering neighbors and City Hall.

The owners of a rental home on 118th Street in Jamaica were hauling away bags of trash from their property all evening on Thursday.

garbage
trash is hauled out of a garbage-coverage home in Queens on Sept. 5, 2019. (Credit: CBS2)

Neighbors say they've been complaining for a decade about piled up garbage in front of the home, but the city hasn't helped.

The city did hit the homeowner more than $300,000 in fines for the trash, but until Thursday, the mess had remained.

MORE: Demanding Answers: NYC Homeowner Racks Up More Than $300,000 In Fines For Home Covered In Garbage

Carminee Bhimull, the site's 57-year-old resident, defended the unsightly pile of trash bags in a heap outside her South Jamaica home.

"What's another person's garbage is somebody else's treasure. Don't they say that?" Bhimull said.

Queens garbage house
This home in South Jamaica, Queens has its neighbors very upset. The homeowner, however, doesn't seem to have a problem with it. (Photo: CBSN New York)

"I'm just tired of this," neighbor Patricia Johnson said. "I just want them to get rid of it, move those things. Get rid of all this mess. It's just too much to deal with. It's overbearing."

Trash bags had been piled as high as the second floor windows.

"And you can't even pass there because there's so much fleas and smelling," Johnson said. "There's 6-pound rats running around."

Late Wednesday afternoon, firefighters arrived to inspect the home. That came as a relief to many neighbors.

EMS took Bhimull to a local hospital for evaluation before Thursday's clean out.

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