Story Created:
Jul 18, 2008 at 4:53 PM EST
Story Updated:
Jul 18, 2008 at 5:08 PM EST
UTICA - A big part of the arson problem in Utica is all the vacant homes in the city. Virtually all vacant house fires - especially in buildings where there is no power - are intentionally set.
But there is a move now to make these fire-magnets tamper-proof.
Plywood and nails don't do the trick. A person who wants to get into a vacant house badly enough can just walk around the back, where it's more private, and take their time prying it off.
Now this board-up job on the other hand, has staying power; this house at Park Ave and South Street in Utica was boarded up ten years ago during the city's first string of arsons.
This is how FEMA - the Federal Emergency Management Agency - does it.
"They actually board the inside and the outside of the home as well as putting a bar between the two and the fire department knows just where to cut that board in case they have to make an emergency entrance to that," said Daniel LaBella, Utica Public Safety Commissioner.
Cornhill People United, headed up at the time by Cassandra Harris-Lockwood, got FEMA training and money to board up a series of homes.
You can spot them - the double 2x4s are still intact, 10 years later.
In some ways, it's a job too well done.
"You know, one thing you have to realize...when you FEMA-board a house, it's pretty much airtight, so it becomes a circulation problem if you were to sell that house down the road," Harris-Lockwood said.
That's okay, though, because the city owns enough vacant homes that are in such bad shape, the only thing in their future is the wrecking ball - 33 of them to be exact - on a demolition list.
Harris-Lockwood points out FEMA-Boarding isn't only about preventing arsons.
"It's terrifying for people to watch miscreants, junkies, crackheads go in and out of the fronts of buildings and they have no recourse," she said.
So what's the holdup? Why not FEMA-Board them all?
Money, of course.
Right now Arson Task Force officials are examining whether or not a grant from Congressman Arcuri can be used to FEMA-Board the city's worst vacant homes.
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