Allan Appel Photo
A small fire led the city to order the city to do what the city planned to do anyway: Demolish an abandoned factory addition at 142 River St.
The addition, a short wood-frame structure next to a taller brick factory building, once housed a portion of the New Haven Pipe Bending complex. It is one of a row of old industrial properties along a riverine stretch of Fair Haven that the city has for years worked to acquire and clean up and find new owners to build back up. The state has sent the city $2.8 million to clean up and demolish properties on River Street as part of the long-running River Street Municipal Plan.
One of those buildings was 142 River. It had had small fires before. Part of it had already collapsed.
Around 5:30 p.m. Thursday firefighters arrived to douse another fire. (They did so without anyone getting hurt.) They discovered that the fire had started in a section of the building that had been sealed off with plastic.
“It looked like a vagrant maybe had made a little encapment in the area that had the fire,” said Assistant Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli. He said no one was present at the time of the fire. He speculated that the destroyed building once served as a loading dock.
City Building Official Jim Turcio arrived on scene and ordered the rest of the building demolished.
“We were already putting in plans to demolish it,” said Helen Rosenberg, the city economic development staffer who has been guiding the River Street revival plan. “It will now be demolished quicker.
“The roof had already collapsed. We were just putting together [demolition] specs … Now it’s jsut two or three weeks sooner. “
Only the wooden structure is coming down now, Rosenberg said. Not the brick building next to it. She said that’ll come down at a later date.
Jose Romero of the Livable City Initiative (LCI) at the scene.
Some of the abandoned factory buildings were already too deteriorated to save when the city acquired them, Rosenberg said. Others the city has worked to save in hopes of having them renovated. Read more about the project here and here.