[StBernard] Fire damages 3 Chalmette apartment buildings

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Tue Jan 8 00:58:58 EST 2008


Regarding the three buildings in Village Sqaure which burned as a result of
arson, this should serve as a wake-up call that we need to have these
complex's demolished and the debris removed as quickly as possible. There
is only one set of apartments back there that have been renovated, which is
quite a surprise concerning its surroundings. Are we still able to have
these buildings removed and then be reimbursed by FEMA, or did JR let our
opportunity to clean-up this area pass?

JFR,

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Fire damages 3 Chalmette apartment buildings
by Staff reports
Sunday January 06, 2008, 10:34 PM

A suspected arson fire heavily damaged three buildings in the closed
Village
Square apartment complex in Chalmette Sunday afternoon, the St.
Bernard
Parish Fire Department said.

No one was injured.

Chief Thomas Stone said he suspected arson was the cause of the
three-alarm
fire, which was under control at 6 p.m.

One of the buildings that burned is at 306 Southern Place, where the
fire
started, the fire department said.

Stone said the upper floor of the two-story building was engulfed in
flames.
The fire destroyed that building and spread to two other buildings,
one on
Plantation Drive and the other on Palm Street. One is a two-story
building,
and the other a three-story building. Both were heavily damaged.



An hour and a half into the fire, a man came out of the second floor
of the
three-story building. He was arrested, but was not suspected of
having set
the fire, Stone said.

Stone said the squatter had only an onion to eat. "I felt sorry for
him," he
said. "At least he'll get fed tonight."

Stone said there was another, much smaller fire eight to 10 weeks
ago in a
fourth building in the same complex, which has about 30 buildings.

Sunday's fire was suspicious because there are no utilities on in
the
buildings, he said.

The complex, just north of West Judge Perez Drive, and a dozen
blocks west
of Paris Road, has been abandoned since it was damaged by Katrina,
Stone
said.





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