[StBernard] Fire breaks out in abandoned apartments in Chalmette's Village Square

[Westley Annis]

Fire breaks out in abandoned apartments in Chalmette's Village Square
Posted by ckirkham August 31, 2009 15:17PM
A fire broke out early this morning in a decaying, mostly abandoned
collection of apartments in Chalmette, injuring no one but forcing the
evacuation of another nearby apartment complex for several hours.


St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone said about 18 apartments caught
fire in the area known as Village Square at about 1:55 a.m. Stone said it
was the third major fire to break out in the decaying tract of apartments
since 2006.

Firefighters fought the blaze for more than two hours. The Village Square
area is among the worst blighted areas of the parish, Stone said.

Because of high grass, firefighters had trouble even locating fire hydrants
in the area.

The Palm Garden Apartments, the only occupied apartments in the area, did
sustain some roof damage and had some of its siding melt, said Steve
Whitehead, a vice president with Renola Homes, which owns the complex. Some
residents will have to be relocated.


"It looked like fireballs were raining on the complex the whole time,"
Whitehead said. "We fortunately have enough units to where we can place our
tenants into other sections of the complex that were not affected by the
smoke damage. We got lucky. Everybody did their jobs and the hats off to the
Sheriff's (Office) and the Fire Department."

Since Hurricane Katrina swamped it, the abandoned shells of apartments in
Village Square have lingered on as parish government and outside investors
have struggled to craft a redevelopment plan for the area. Under the current
plan, the area will be bought out with federal government money and be
reserved as green space.

"This is a good case to show that the demolition of these buildings needs to
proceed rapidly," Stone said. 

St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said the goal is to demolish the
apartments once the buyout process is complete, possibly by the beginning of
next year.