Burn, Baby, Burn!
How exciting. The house across the street- the old boarding house next to the Matteolis- is on fire. Fire engines all over the place. Fire seems to have started in the roof.
Connie came in just before 10:30pm and woke me up saying the house across the street was on fire. Sure enough. Large flames coming out of the roof.
All kinds of people from the neighborhood out watching the festivities. Marc Matteoli was out on the sidewalk next to the place and seemed to be enjoying himself. He was chatting with cops and firemen he seemed to know.
After a while he came over to our side of the street and asked if we were the ones that called it in. We weren't. I was a asleep and Connie didn't know anything about it until the fire engines pulled up.
I told Marc I was disappointed they had it under control so soon as the best thing that could probably happen for the neighborhood was for the house to burn down. It was used as a boarding house before being left abandoned and was a constant source of problems.
Marc replies, "No, no, no. It's a beautiful old house. It just needs a new owner". I replied that who else is going to buy a house like that unless they're going to turn it into another boarding house. The place has 11 bedrooms. It's highly unlikely you'll find a family large enough to move into it.
He went back across the street after that. We watched for a while longer but within a half hour the flames were out. Still smoke billowing out of the roof and windows, though.
I was surprised at how many people, including firefighters, were standing around taking pictures.
Big hole left in the roof by the time I went back to bed. I could still see the flashing red lights outside at 1:30. Don't know how long the fire trucks stuck around.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 10:27 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
Grow?
Better hope they don't have bunch of fireworks stashed in the attic.
I doubt it. It's been abandoned ever since the old manager was arrested and put in jail. I'm not sure but I would think the power to the house would of been turned off. Haven't seen any lights on since the manager has been gone.
Oddly enough, yesterday (Monday as I write this) was the day they finally hauled off the manager's old pick up truck.
It had been left in front of the house and the police kept tagging it as abandoned. The folks from the druggie house 3 houses south kept coming by and removing the tags and moving the truck so it looked like it had been moved.
Finally, they pushed the truck out in front of their house, where the cops kept coming back and tagging it and they kept ripping off the tags, as was going on before.
I started seeing more trash in the back of the truck, old tires and such. A week or two I saw a tow truck there and it looked like they were gonna tow it, but the tow truck drove off without it.
So, on Sunday, I see a couple of the guys working feverishly to load the back of the truck with stuff. I'm wondering if they're going to stuff it full of junk before it gets hauled off?
Sure enough. Yesterday morning the tow truck comes back and drags the truck off with the bed full of junk. I'm guessing the cops and tow company cut them a deal: Dump all the trash you want in the truck and we'll haul it off. No charge.
Well, at least the truck is gone. Strange the house burned the same day.
Fire truck just stopped by in front of our house. I asked one of the guys if they knew what started it. He just said, "Nope".
Looks like someone hired a security guard to keep people away from the house. I'm guessing they'll be coming back to figure out what caused the fire.
pretty awesome show of flames! i hope they either tear it down or clean it up correctly - but most likely it will be a halfass cleanup and we'll have the eyesore for awhile.
My guess is it will sit just as it is for quite some time. The place is likely ruined. Channel 3 said last night damage is estimated at at least $200,000. This rain going through the huge hole in the roof will likely exacerbate it.
I say tear it down and put in a single family dwelling.
i see that there's no tarp or anything on the roof - they must be giving up on it. and i agree about tearing it down and putting up a single family dwelling. Too bad to lose the historic building, but it's a lost cause if no one can keep it up.
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