By Jessica Fargen
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — A city team tasked with surveying vacant and dangerous properties last week found buildings that were structurally unsafe, open to vagrants and a hazard to the community and firefighters.
The inspections were part of a task force launched this month by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to survey 147 properties the fire department has deemed unsafe. The task force started in East Boston on Monday.
“They are really run down and dangerous,” said Boston fire department spokesman Steve MacDonald.
Inspections last week revealed:
- A possibly structurally unsafe warehouse in Roxbury. Owner John McGrail was ordered to hire an engineer to assess the structure. He told the Herald he hired an engineer who said the building is sound.
- A vacant four-family home on Webster Street in East Boston that was open to trespass and vagrants and “a danger to surrounding buildings and the public,” an inspector wrote. Owner ordered to secure building, fix problems. The owner could not be reached.
- A three-family occupied home on Bremen Street in East Boston that had back stairs in disrepair, limiting egress for tenants. Owner ordered to repair stairs. The owner could not be reached.
Menino launched the crackdown after a nine-alarm Aug. 21 fire at a Roxbury warehouse on Norfolk Avenue.
Warehouse owner Candeloro J. Maggio of New Hampshire admits he was illegally renting to three people at 31 Norfolk Ave., next to the warehouse, and that those tenants started the fire. The city evicted the tenants after the fire because of code violations and ordered Maggio to fix the problems.
Earlier this month, the mayor had threatened to take Maggio to court after the owner told the Herald he refused to make repairs.
On Friday, Maggio told the Herald he plans to hire a “consultant’’ to help him bring the building back into compliance.
Lisa Timberlake, a spokeswoman for the Inspectional Services Department, said Maggio has not yet taken any official action to fix violations at 31 Norfolk Ave.