Firefighters won't protect condemned houses

The buildings may be older or newer, may be locally owned or their owners may be out-of-state. They may be structurally unsound or just lacking water, heat or electricity hookups.

They may be residential or commercial, but Lynchburg’s condemned buildings have one thing in common other than a bright green placard at the door: firefighters will not enter the buildings to put out a blaze from the interior, unless there is the possibility of someone inside.

Lynchburg Fire Marshal Greg Wormser stated the fire department’s directives regarding condemned buildings.

“If the building is structurally unsafe, then we will not go in,” he said, adding, “If we believe that there are people inside, we will go in.”

A list provided by Lynchburg’s inspections office numbered the total condemned buildings in the city at 237.

One of those buildings, the Piedmont Mills building, on Jefferson Street, was listed as unfit for occupancy.

Investors are in the process of attempting to restore the historic building.

Wormser used that structure as an example of one firefighters would not enter unless they believed someone was inside.

“The only thing we’re going to do is protect the buildings around it,” he said, “that doesn’t mean we’re not going to fight the fire at the Piedmont Mills building, but we’re not going to send anybody in.”

But that, he said, would be reversed when the building is in a condition that would not threaten the safety of either residents or firefighters.

“As soon as they start construction, and have shown us that it’s structurally stable and there’s an engineer that’s approved it, we’re going to be good,” Wormser said. “We’re going to do everything we can within our power to save it.”

That building’s designation, building maintenance supervisor Wayne Craig said, denoted exterior, as well as interior, problems.

Craig said condemned buildings could be condemned for a multitude of different reasons, and said a placard that notes the building as condemned is not the same thing as marking a building for demolition.

“You can condemn a house for a lot of reasons,” he said. “No heat, no smoke alarms, it could be hoarding, it could be trash … it could be falling down.”

Craig said not all of the houses are old or dilapidated buildings.

“I’ve got $200,000 homes on that list that are sitting condemned, then I’ve got $50 homes on that list.”

Of all the buildings on the list, nine were slated for demolition, but Craig said those aren’t necessarily the only buildings that should be taken down.

“A lot of them are bad structures, but the city doesn’t have the finances to take them down,” he said.

Before a building is marked for demolition, Craig said, the city submits the building to the Lynchburg Housing Authority to see if they have a use for it. If not, the property is marked as blighted.

Green placards guard the doors of those buildings marked as unlivable, and Wormser said firefighters receive notice as to whether a house is condemned en route to the house in the event of a fire.

He reiterated that the primary concern when deciding not to enter a building is safety.

“The last thing we want to do is try to save this building on 12th Street,” he said, “and in the process of trying to save it, five firefighters fall through the floor from the top all the way down to the basement, and they’re trapped and end up dying.”

“There’s just no benefit to trying to save a building that no one is taking care of anyway,” he said.