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Fire on 26th Street
10/29/2009 12:43 AM by John M
A reader reports a fire at 1211 North 26th Street:
Was on my way home at about 11:30 and noticed a huge smoke plume a block behind the M and 25th Street roundabout. A freestanding house on 26th, the 1200 block was in a full blaze. It was abandoned and boarded up. The neighbors were watching, but clearly unfazed.
Real Time Traffic Info is saying that there is a fire on 26th Street and that:
MALE NAME DAVID SAY HE SET THE FIRE…HE IS TRYING TO KILL HIM SELF SAND HUNG UP THE FIRE IS NEAR THE MOUNT OLIVETT
I knew I smelled something burning last night.
It was a beautiful house with a lot of potential….
I live just a few houses away. They had someone in the squad car in cuffs as the fire squad worked to put out the blaze. Am I wrong, or was this property on the city’s schedule to be demolished? Why hasn’t it been? It’s frustrating that the city encourages people to move onto these blocks and then does nothing about these houses. They are just kindling waiting for a spark.
so was it intentionally set then? also, if it was “a block behind the M / 25th St roundabout” wouldn’t that put it around 700 /800 block of 26th (not the 1200 block)?
Times Dispatch has an article about this, they’ve arrested someone.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/crime/…
Bullwinkle – The fire was at 1211 N. 26th Street.
Mt. Olivet is on 25th and S Street, I think.
Based on the assessment information, it appears that ownership was under someone’s estate. My guess is – and I think this is a case for A LOT of the vacants in the area – that the owner died long ago, with or without a will, and the heirs (including some who may now also be deceased (which means it goes to their heirs) or living far from Richmond) cannot be reached or if they can be reached then they haven’t been able to reach an agreement on what to do with the property. Again, I’ll admit that it’s a lot of guesswork.
Another interesting insight is that by searching under the current owner’s name, there are 5 other properties in the area under their name (2 of which are on the same block of N. 26th St.)
Hey Magneto, how do you search by owner’s name? I’ve often wanted to do that but didn’t see that as a search option in the city data base. What am I missing? Any suggestions appreciated, thanks.
David has spent some time at the Richmond Community Hospital Psychiatric Ward. Hopefully this will put him away for along time!
Kind of scary, considering the fire department staffing reductions on Church Hill..
/2009/10/20/richmond-firefighters-association-launches-blog-to-track-fire-company-closures_9843/
http://richmondfirefighters.blogspot.com/
@UrbanPioneer – Yes, this property was on a list published last year of properties to be demolished.
David Junious McLean of the 1500 block of North 22nd Street has been charged with arson.
RTD has picked up story: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/local/crim…
that’s a heluva way to try to commit suicide. burning yourself up? i bet the success rate on that is not too high. yeech.
i loved this house. it had the best porch. i know this sounds lame but i cried a little. i mean why would you do sucoh a thing…
i took a ton of cool pictures of whats left of the house this morning.
gosh sorry. 1 more comment from me..I talked to the women who claims to have been the first to call the cops last night when she saw the flames at the top of the house. She says she saw TWO guys running from behind the house just before the flames rapidly engulfed the roof. I dont buy that suicide story for a second.
@ CRD go to this website: http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/propertysearch/
To search by property address you have to click the “Search by Other Information” link on the left. There’s also a “Search by Onwer Name” link, too.
The City also has property, zoning, and other information viewable by map here: http://map.richmondgov.com/parcel/ It’s really user friendly.
I was really hoping that BHC would buy this house and add it to their list of amazing renovations in the area.
Magneto, thanks so much! I had bookmarked a site where the only choice was by location. Appreciate the help, thanks!
Was going to suggest that maybe BHC will still buy it, but from the picture above, it looks more like a candidate for demo, which is a real shame.