A police officer flagged illegal conditions in a Brightwood rental about five months before a fire killed two occupants, city officials confirm to DCist. The officer informed the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which manages building code violations and licensing, and the D.C. Fire and EMS Department, says Susana Castillo, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

Four government officials from DCRA and D.C. Fire have been placed on paid administrative leave as a result of the revelations, she says.

A DCRA investigator went to the property three times, but was never able to gain entrance. The case was closed before the agency ever inspected the property, Castillo says. D.C. Fire officials never followed up on the officer’s report at all, per Castillo. Mayor Muriel Bowser has retained outside firm Alvarez and Marsal to conduct an investigation of the city’s handling of the situation across each involved agency, Castillo says.

NBC Washington and The Washington Post were the first to report on the city’s knowledge of the illegal rental.

Two people—including a nine-year-old boy—died in an August 18 fire at the illegal rental on Kennedy Street NW, which housed about a dozen Ethiopian immigrants. Bowser has called for a federal investigation into the fire, as the building was not licensed as a rental property, and was allegedly rife with dangerous code violations that made it difficult for residents to escape during the fire.

Officials described the home as a maze of rooms with hallways so narrow, opening one door could make it impossible to open another. There were reportedly bars covering doors and windows, and several sections were partitioned off with locked security gates that slowed down rescuers trying to reach occupants during the blaze. The building is licensed as a pharmaceutical company called Flowers Medical Care LLC, per DCRA records.

On March 21, months before the fire, a police officer from the Metropolitan Police Department responded to the property to resolve a dispute between residents, Castillo says.  When the officer entered the property, he recognized a slew of safety violations, as well as the possibility that the building was an illegal rental, she says. The officer then filed a report with DCRA and with D.C. Fire to notify them about the violations and safety hazards.

D.C. Fire reportedly never followed up on the officer’s report. After several more attempts by the officer, Castillo says, DCRA eventually assigned an investigator to the case months later. The investigator visited the property three times and left a business card when no one answered the door, and the agency also sent a letter to the landlord, she says. But the investigator never entered the property, and the agency closed the case without ever doing an inspection, Castillo says.

On the Kojo Nnamdi Show Wednesday, DCRA Director Ernest Chrappah said that the investigator could have obtained a court order to search the property “provided there’s enough information that shows clearly there is a danger.”

“It’s important to recognize that while this was an illegal rooming situation, it’s a home for people, and nobody will feel comfortable if the government shows up and breaks into your home,”  Chrappah said. He said that the agency’s obligation to investigate violations must be “balance[d] with Fourth Amendment rights.”

Castillo says the city does not have a timeline for when the outside firm will be finished with its investigation. A 40-year-old man, identified by the Post as Fitsum Kebede, and a 9-year-old boy named Yafet Solomon, both lost their lives in the fire. Solomon’s funeral is on Wednesday. A GoFundMe for his mother has now raised upwards of $14,000.