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Fire on 31st Street
02/02/2012 8:09 AM by John M
Richmond Fire & EMS Lt. Robbie Hagaman said the fire was reported just before 3 a.m. by a Richmond police officer who noticed smoke coming from a two-story house in the 500 block of North 31st Street.
According to the story in the RTD this morning, the house was vacant.
That seems like the 5th vacant house fire in the past few months I can think of. Is that normal here? I’m thinking possible arson, or homeless people living in them and trying to make a fire to stay warm.
Bums trying to stay warm or get high. Many vacant homes but the city won’t do anything about them. Guess they will all burn eventually. Love the blight in this hood!
Just to clarify – there is a difference between vacant and blighting. The building that burned was vacant, but not blighting. The building was decently maintained and I wasn’t even sure until this morning that it was vacant. I seriously doubt that the fire on Thursday morning was caused by a squatter or arsonist. Probably more like a mouse chewed wire fire. I was very impressed that the smoke was spotted so early by the RIchmond police officer and that the fire department was able to respond so quickly to keep it from becoming a major blaze. Great work!
I agree with the sentiment that people trying to stay warm or getting high in vacant buildings is a fire hazard to everyone in the neighborhood. If you see squatters or anything suspicious going on in or near a vacant house please, please, please call the police immediately and contact that city to let them know that the owner of the building needs to properly secure the building. I use SeeClixFix on my iPhone and report to the city any property maintenance issues (on public and private property) I come across while I walk my dog. I believe the city takes these reports seriously b/c I have seen notices posted or other steps taken by the city for every one of the issues I have reported (not to say it might not take a few days or weeks to get taken care of).