ST. LOUIS — A vacant house fire in Tower Grove South has many neighbors concerned.
The neighbors next door to a vacant home in the 3400 block of McKean Avenue say it was essentially a ticking time bomb and they weren't surprised when it caught fire.
Erin Lyndon-Lorson and her family moved to the shortest street in St Louis, McKean Avenue, in 2019 and they love their block but they like many other St. Louisans are dealing with a vacant home they practically share a wall with.
“We believe all people should have a home. However, when it's unregulated and unmaintained that's when the problems arise,” Lydon-Lorson said.
She said over the past year they have seen roughly 30 different people coming in and out of the house and their worst fear came true on Sunday night just as they were coming home from the park.
“We saw smoke billowing out of the house next door, the back window. We saw a man come out and say my apartment’s on fire and then just head on down towards Gravois. I asked him if he was going to call 911. He said no. So we called the fire department. The fire department's amazing. They were here within two minutes,” Lydon-Lorson said.
She said she was terrified for their 12-year-old dog Apollo who was at home by himself at the time.
“Our motion detector actually went off five minutes before we got home and we forgot to set it the other way. So when we got home we were thinking something happened. Truly I believe our dog was just pacing because he probably saensed something was going on,” Lydon-Lorsen said.
St. Louis Fire Capt. Garon Mosby said the problems with vacant homes in the city are never going to stop, but they've been working to catalog them so they have some idea of what they're getting into.
“When you listen to dispatch radios you'll often hear this building has a low, a medium or high probability of collapse. It's the high probability of collapse that really clues you in because you know that that survey was conducted under ideal situations, building wasn't on fire, and it was a no go then,” Mosby said.
And after the fire, it's now even more of a safety hazard.
“When these buildings are not properly maintained or kept and you have the elements getting to them, it wears away at the structural stability,” Mosby said.
Lydon-Lorsen said there is broken glass everywhere and doors that are still open.
“Charred walls, just everything was gone. The ceilings are caving in. Everything is just awful,” she said.
Mosby said people not only seek shelter in vacant homes, but they also steal from the structure which can add to the instability.
“They open up walls, whether they're trying to get copper or whatever they might be mining for, it can reduce the structural stability of the building. Then you have the elements, harsh winters, rainy summers, repeated freeze and thaw," Mosby said. "The structural stability of the building decreases further once the roof goes. Then that water and all that that's coming in, and that's deteriorating the floors. So it may not be bad for someone to live in the building. But if that building starts to burn, then those already weakened structural members become even weaker.”
Ward 7 Alderwoman Alisha Sonnier said she's committed to addressing the problem but it's going to take time.
“The neighborhood improvement specialist is going to go out tomorrow morning and take a close look at the property and kind of talk about some ways that we can secure it, I went by today to take a look and have thoughts about some of the ways to secure it. Then we're going to tag the building division in,” Sonnier said.
Sonnier said unfortunately the company that owns the home is out of state which adds another layer of complication.
“According to our laws, we have to give private property owners at least a chance to respond to initiate their own processes before we can begin to take steps to escalate it. It is one of the most frustrating things that I deal with as an Alderperson,” Sonnier said.
Sonnier said she is hoping recently passed legislation will also help with the city-wide problem.
“This is why you hear me talking about housing justice so much and talking about the need to create spaces for folks to go so that they're not going into vacant buildings. That's one of the things that property owners have to do is identify a local agent within 100 miles so that we don't have to spend so much time just trying to track it down so we don't end up in situations like this where we're being reactive rather than proactive,” Sonnier said.
Mosby said if you are dealing with a problematic vacant home in your neighborhood you can send a tweet or file an online complaint with the St. LouisCitizens’ Service Bureau.
He also recommends reaching out to the neighborhood alderperson.