Lawrence officials investigate blaze, worry others may follow

January 31, 2008 05:44 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Russell Contreras, Globe Staff

LAWRENCE -- A fire in a five-unit building that is set to foreclose next week remains under investigation, Lawrence Fire Chief Peter Takvorian said today.

The three-alarm blaze, which started Wednesday night, temporarily displaced 14 people from the Union Street building. Takvorian said the families were scheduled to return today since firefighters were able to contain the fire to the unoccupied rear-end of the building.

The building has four apartments -- two of which are vacant -- and a church on the first floor, said Takvorian.

"Investigators are interviewing people right now," Takvorian said. "The fire seems to have started in a vacant bedroom." No one was hurt in the blaze, Takvorian said.

The fire Wednesday followed last week's massive fire that destroyed 14 buildings in South Lawrence and left nearly 200 people homeless.

That fire, which came as the city struggles with a wave of foreclosures, sparked fears that the city is returning to the "flaming era" of the early 1990s, when the city saw more than 100 arsons of buildings annually because of its many abandoned buildings.

City officials estimate that the city now has around 255 abandoned buildings.

After last week's blaze, Mayor Michael J. Sullivan announced the formation of the Fire Protection Foreclosure Task Force. Sullivan said the task force will inventory foreclosed properties, identifying the owners and categorizing the conditions of each property.