Global Courant 2023-05-12 13:30:58
BALTIMORE – Flames shot from the second and third windows of an abandoned row house, illuminating the early morning sky. Crews from multiple fire engines rushed in, but within minutes the interior of the building collapsed, killing three firefighters and critically injuring a fourth. It was the Baltimore City Fire Department’s worst loss of life since the mid-1950s
“It was really heartbreaking for everyone there,” Councilor Odette Ramos told Fox News. “We just have to do more. We just can’t let something like this happen again.”
Vacant buildings burn twice as fast as the national average in Baltimore, according to the city’s fire department. A fire in a long-abandoned house on January 24, 2022 (left) killed three firefighters. (Courtesy of Baltimore Firefighters IAFF Local 734/Facebook)
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The house on Stricker Street had been empty for more than 10 years and had experienced two previous fires, according to BCFD. The first fire, in 2015, resulted in a partial collapse injuring three firefighters and endangering the building. On January 24, 2022, Lieutenant Paul Butrim, Lieutenant Kelsey Sadler, and Firefighter Kenny Lacayo were killed.
Ramos took the news personally: Clearing vacant buildings in the city is one of her long-term priorities.
“We’ve been working on this for a long time and it’s not enough,” she said. “And people have died.”
More than 14,000 vacant buildings are scattered throughout Baltimore, costing the city about $100 million a year in maintenance, fire and police resources, according to a recent study. Johns Hopkins University initiative report. Baltimore had one of the highest vacancy rates in the country in 2019 at 8.1%.
A BCFD report after the firefighters’ deaths revealed concerns about vacant buildings, which the department said were burning at twice the national average in Baltimore.
Two firefighters embrace after a fire on January 24, 2022, which killed three members of the Baltimore City Fire Department. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via Getty)
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“Most fires in vacant buildings are believed to have been deliberately lit,” the report reads, adding that vacant properties “are often used for drug activity and illegally occupied by homeless people who light small fires for heating or cooking.”
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives determined the deadly 2022 fire was deliberately lit and ruled their deaths a homicide, but no arrests have been made.
Sean DeCrane of the International Association of Fire Fighters said Baltimore is not alone in struggling with vacant buildings.
“Vacant buildings have been a challenge since probably the origins of firefighting,” DeCrane said. “This is a problem we see nationwide. Big cities, small towns, big buildings, small buildings.”
While vacant buildings account for less than 10% of all building fires, they cause a disproportionate share of firefighter injuries, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
“We don’t know the condition of the building. We don’t know the structural integrity of the building. We don’t know what’s in those buildings,” DeCrane said. “Is there a possibility that someone is inside?”
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What is unique about Baltimore is the prevalence of row houses, a series of houses with shared walls and roof. If a fire breaks out in a house, it can be more difficult to contain than a fire in a house with a defensible space around it.
“That’s why people are really scared when they’re next to vacant properties,” Ramos said.
Ramos spoke to Fox News of a northeast Baltimore neighborhood where crumbling row houses lined the street, sheets of plywood replaced the doors, and paper notices read “vacancy.” Reflective red signs warned firefighters that the buildings are structurally unsound – an initiative spurred by the firefighters’ deaths.
An excavator rumbled nearby.
“You see some demolition here because the city has these new policies,” Ramos said. “Because of how dangerous some of these beacons are, not just to firefighters, but to others, we demolish based on the severity of how bad the roof is and things like that.”
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But demolishing or finding buyers for the vacant properties could take years — the Stricker Street home has been abandoned since 2008 and had about $50,000 in liens. That’s why Ramos and Councilman James Torrence say they’ve introduced legislation to allow a quasi-governmental land-banking authority to acquire and sell abandoned properties, with the aim of cutting auctions and red tape.
Ramos and DeCrane agree that local governments need to do more to address the problem. While there are national guidelines for marking unsafe buildings, DeCrane said getting cities to comply is a challenge.
“If they’re dangerous, we have to label them,” DeCrane said. He also wants more to be invested in the demolition of unsafe buildings.
More than 14,000 vacant properties are scattered across Baltimore. Terraced houses are an even greater fire hazard, with as many as 10 homes under one roof. (Megan Myers, Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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The vacancy crisis is an “all hands on deck” situation, Ramos said, but she’s confident the city can handle it.
“This is what our firefighters do: they go in to save lives,” she said. “It is our duty not only to them, but to the entire neighborhood to address the vacant properties.”
Ramiro Vargas contributed to the accompanying video.
Hannah Ray Lambert is an associate producer/writer at Fox News Digital Originals.