Eight vacant Back Bay buildings identified as problem properties
(Matt Rocheleau for Boston.com)
A building at 396 Boylston St. is among eight in the Back Bay that the city has identified as problem properties.
Eight vacant buildings in Back Bay are among the nearly 150 that city officials have identified as problem properties.
A team from fire, inspection services, and other departments started in East Boston Monday and are working throughout the city, reaching all of the empty or abandoned properties that the Fire Department says are dangerous.
The goal is to put pressure on owners to restore the properties to a safe and sanitary condition. Failure to do so will result in legal action by the city, according to Mayor Thomas Menino who established a task force following an Aug. 21 Roxbury warehouse fire, one of the biggest in Boston’s history.
At 212 Stuart St., a building under rehabilitation upon last inspection had a hole in the rear right side from the third floor down to the first and the inspection officials were unable to gain entry to the building.
At 396 Boylston St., three roof skylights were broken and the rear of the building is unstable.
At 392 Boylston St., a two-story building had numerous amounts of mechanical equipment on the roof and the sidewalk is partially collapsed.
At 45-47 Commonwealth Ave., the buildings’ “structural integrity seems compromised throughout” as there were holes in the floor on every level and missing railings on several stairwells.
At 5-7 Commonwealth Ave., the buildings were being completely demolished and rehabbed except for the buildings’ outer shells. There were numerous holes, open shafts, trenches and scaffolding was set up throughout each and the stairways “cannot be counted on for support”
At 26 St. Stephen St., a structure was “full of debris from floor to ceiling throughout.” The building was considered “extremely dangerous to enter due to heavy fire loads” and confined space issues. There was also a possible secondary contamination from unsanitary conditions.
E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.
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