‘Nuisance’ building burns down

• By JASON BROWN
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Aug 7, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

LAFAYETTE — An old vacant building, known as a hot spot for drug use, prostitution and transients, burned to the ground Wednesday despite efforts from a large contingent of firefighters who battled to keep the blaze under control and away from a nearby homeless shelter.

Alton Trahan, spokesman for the Lafayette Fire Department, said the old Anderson Furniture Warehouse, in the 100 block of South Buchanan Street, next door to the Acadiana Outreach Center campus, was nearly engulfed in flames when firefighters responded Wednesday.

“The building is completely burned to the slab,” Trahan said Wednesday afternoon.

In all, 18 units responded to the fire, which was reported at 12:13 p.m. Five firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion, four of whom were treated at a local hospital.

All were later released.

Hours later, officials were trying to determine the cause of the fire and whether anyone was inside during the blaze.

“That’s a concern of ours at this time,” Trahan said.

The fire did minor damage to one building on the Acadiana Outreach Center’s campus, Trahan said.

The warehouse has been vacant for anywhere from four to seven years and is owned by a Houston resident. Trahan said Wednesday afternoon that they had been unable to reach him thus far.

At the scene Wednesday, City-Parish Councilman Brandon Shelvin said the building has been a topic of discussion for some time and a sore spot for those in the area who referred to it as an accident waiting to happen. The building was structurally sound but had been deemed a fire hazard, he said.

“My wishes would have been for the city or the owner to tear it down,” Shelvin said.

Both Shelvin and Marcus Bruno, director of Lafayette Criminal Support Services, said the city has been working toward condemning the property and was in the final stages of that process.

Bruno said his office was compiling information on the building from various city departments and soon planned to notify the owner that the building was a fire hazard, in violation of the city’s nuisance ordinances and that it had been deemed an unsafe structure.