Fire destroys abandoned house

According to one local resident, it was a fire that never should have happened. Last night a two-alarm blaze gutted a vacant four-story brick house at 4423 Spruce Street, according to the Philadelphia Fire Department. But one resident said the building should have been torn down long before now. "There should have been no fire," said Sean McCloskey of the Penn Real Estate Group, who lives two doors down from the now completely destroyed building."[The building] was structurally unsound. It should have been torn down." McCloskey added that the building had been vacant for over 20 years. Last night, the fire, which was reported around 10 p.m., forced many surrounding homes to be evacuated and local streets to be blocked off to traffic. More than 15 fire trucks and emergency vehicles responded to fight the fire. Workers needed over two hours to extinguish the blaze. Plumes of smoke were visible for blocks and attracted at least 100 onlookers. McCloskey said community members had been signing petitions and writing letters to get the License and Inspection Department to declare the only vacant building in Spruce Hill "eminently dangerous" and have it demolished. He said a building is declared "imminently dangerous" when it jeopardizes the safety of local residents. The owners of the building must take actions to improve the building's condition or the city will tear it down, he added. But McCloskey said because the building was only declared to be "dangerous," the city never forced the absentee owners to improve safety conditions. "It was apparent the building was beyond salvageability," he said. "The entire cornice of the building fell off." McCloskey added that squatters have taken up residence in the building in the past. He said he has not seen a squatter for the last year, but neighbors told him they have recently seen people going in and out of the building. McCloskey said evacuated residents began moving back into their homes after midnight. He said the residence at the nearby 4425 Spruce Street did sustain some damage after it briefly caught fire. One Philadelphia firefighter said an investigation into the cause of the fire will begin today.