Channel 2: Vacant Homes Investigation; We Need Your Help

This is an important service by Channel 2, focusing attention on dangerous conditions that routinely risk the lives of firefighters, as well as neighbors.

Channel 2 has again published a common mistake about housing vacancies. There are actually about 25,000 Buffalo housing vacancies in about 10,000 vacant buildings. For example, there are 24 apartments in long-vacant 250 Virginia Street, owned by the East Coast Capital-connected Friedlander family from Brooklyn, now being investigated as part of the 60 house ECC-Doucette mortgage flip-scam.

Clearly new strategies need to be developed to fight the steady stream of arsons in abandoned buildings. A recent arson at 33 Urban caused an alleged $65,000 in damage, plus about $60,000 damage to next-door 37 Urban. However, the two houses are assessed at merely $3500 & $5000.

In addition to this initiative, the media need to publish names of owners of derelict dangerous buildings, then monitor their being prosecuted.

Clearly it is not worth the life of firefighters to enter virtually worthless abandoned houses, often owned by unscrupled investor-speculators, as the life-threatening injuries to Mark Reed at Dale Acker's 128 Wende arson-fire dramatically show.

R. Kern

http://www.wgrz.com/news/news_articl...?storyid=48917

Vacant Homes Investigation; We Need Your Help

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Posted by: Josh Boose, Reporter

Created: 6/15/2007 11:12:49 PM
Updated: 6/15/2007 11:49:11 PM


2 On Your Side needs your help in finding out more information about vacant homes in the city of Buffalo.

This is a big problem, city officials say there are 10,000 vacant homes in Buffalo. Recent house fires have caused some real concerns about safety, not only for firefighters but also neighbors.

We want to hear about your experiences with Buffalo's vacant homes and any information you may know about any accidents, fires or problems at any of the empty locations.

If you have tried to get a vacant home torn down, we want to see the document trail. If you have ideas on how to deal with the problem, we want to hear them.

You can send us an email at jboose@wgrz.gannett.com and psmith3@wgrz.gannett.com, or you can just write you information in the comment area below.

With you help we can make a real difference with a problem that has plagued our area for decades.


wgrz.com


ALSO:

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/99180.html
FOCUS: ARSON
Arson fires: The firefighters’ nightmare
Arsons in rundown, vacant houses pose danger,but they are accepted as a reality of the job
By Maki Becker
Updated: 06/15/07 7:40 AM


Capt. Mark Morganti has been injured fighting blazes at three separate vacant house fires over his career — but that’s nothing unusual for city firefighters.

His closest brush with death came about eight years ago, when he and his crew were in the attic of an abandoned house where they had just put out a fire.

Morganti heard a terrible creaking sound, and the roof suddenly collapsed on his team. Despite injuries to his back, he escaped to safety by crawling through a 2-by-2-foot hole.

It’s a nightmare that occurs all too often and one that city firefighters accept as a reality of their jobs.

“Firemen get hurt in vacant fires all the time,” Morganti said.

Fires at vacant or poorly kept buildings pose a perpetual danger to the city and its firefighters. Even more troubling, vacant structures are often the target of arsonists.

A raging fire at a dilapidated, vacant house at 120 Wende St. Sunday night left Firefighter Mark Reed with life-threatening injuries to his head and body. A chimney on the long-neglected building crumbled on top of him as he stood next to the flaming structure.

Investigators have determined that the fire was intentionally set.

Reed, who has been in Erie County Medical Center's intensive care unit since being injured, was back in "very, very critical condition" on Thursday and was no longer considered stable, said Fire Commissioner Michael Lombardo.

Doctors told Lombardo that pressure from intracranial swelling had gone back up, despite efforts to keep it under control.

Meanwhile, investigators with the fire marshal's office are asking for the public's help in finding whoever set the fire at 120 Wende St. A $5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Anyone with information is asked to call 851-4515.

At least one city firefighter has been killed battling an arson fire at a vacant structure in recent history, according to records kept by the Buffalo Fire Historical Society.

In 1988, Lt. Michael Gerrie died at the scene of an arson fire at an abandoned warehouse on Liberty Avenue. He was killed when a brick wall crashed down on him.

Last year, 334 city firefighters were injured on the job — and 50 of those injuries occurred in vacant structures, according to Fire Department statistics.

So far this year, 160 firefighter injuries have been reported, with 26 occurring in vacant buildings, officials said.

Vacant homes pose serious dangers to firefighters because the houses are often in disrepair and more prone to collapsing, Fire Commissioner Michael Lombardo said.

There’s also rarely any way to tell whether people are inside the buildings, which forces firefighters to put their lives on the line by searching them to make sure no one is trapped, he said.

“We’ve pulled squatters out,” Lombardo said. “We’ve pulled families out. We’ve even pulled arsonists out . . . . We’re not social arbitrators. We don’t make any judgments on your status. We’re just there to help people. We treat everybody as best we can.”

There are about 10,000 abandoned homes scattered throughout the city, according to Richard Tobe, commissioner of the city’s Department of Economic Development, Permits and Inspections. That translates to about 16 percent of the city’s dwelling units.

In his bid to deal with Buffalo’s vacant building problem, Mayor Byron W. Brown has allocated $6 million into the new city budget for demolition of dangerous abandoned properties.

But in the meantime, arsons at vacant buildings continue to menace the city.

The fire marshal’s office reports that about 65 percent of all fires in the city are arsons — and the vast majority of the arsons take place in vacant buildings.

Already this year, fire marshals have investigated 262 suspicious fires, according to Fire Department statistics. Of those fires, 146 were determined to be arsons.

Overnight Tuesday, for instance, city firefighters battled four blazes, said Lt. Sal Colangelo, an investigator with the fire marshal’s office.

Three of those fires were determined to be arson, he said. Of those three, two were in vacant houses. “That’s normal,” Colangelo said.

In 2006, marshals investigated 662 suspicious fires, with 399 deemed arsons — 250 of which were in vacant homes.

So far this year, city law enforcement has made 43 arson arrests, compared with a total of 73 in all of last year.

The city has had a long history of run-ins with Dale L. Acker, the previous owner of the Wende Street house where Reed was injured. The property had been cited several times for various housing code violations.

The city took over the title of the house in November, and Acker had been ordered either to raze the house or pay the city to have it demolished.

Acker was arrested Monday on a bench warrant for failure to appear in Housing Court. The same day, charred remnants of the house were torn down in an emergency demolition.

Investigators said they don’t believe Acker played any role in the arson.

Fire investigators said they believe the city is starting to make progress in dealing with vacant properties — but it has been an uphill battle.

“They are tearing down more [vacant houses],” Colangelo said. “But the city just has so many vacant buildings. It seems like we can never catch up.”