AUGUSTA — Three people were ordered to leave their home Tuesday after the city deemed a State Street building unfit for occupancy because of concerns about water damage to its structure and wiring.
It was the second building to be vacated in Augusta in slightly more than a week.
The two-story building at 44 State St. was ordered closed after code and fire officials visited it Monday to determine its condition and found structural, electrical and hoarding problems on the second floor, said Robert Overton, an Augusta code enforcement officer.
Overton said he has seen buildings in bad shape before and seen hoarding cases before, but “this is the worst combination of them I’ve seen.”
He said the home’s occupants, who initially said they wouldn’t be able to vacate the building, told him Tuesday afternoon they already had found another apartment in Augusta and they would leave. The floor in parts of the second floor was covered with piles of what appeared to be clothing, trash and other items, some reaching nearly as high as the ceiling, according to photographs provided by the city in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
When the city takes possession of the building, it probably will be demolished.
“I’d be very surprised if we can salvage it,” Overton said.
Overton said the accumulation of items on the second floor was not specifically cited as a code issue that prompted the order to vacate, but it was a factor in the decision. A leaking roof allowed water to enter the building, where it caused ceilings to collapse, and water also got into the home’s electrical system, creating a fire hazard, according to Overton.
Also, Overton said, if firefighters were to enter the building to fight a fire there, they would have a hard time moving on the second floor because of all the accumulated items.
“We’re concerned that water that caused the second floor ceiling to collapse undoubtedly damaged the wiring. It got into the (electrical) system,” Overton said. “That’s a fire hazard. And if you have a fire in there, you’d have firefighters battling through the hoarding issue, looking for people. Anybody would have a hard time in that building in an emergency situation. We decided, because of the safety issues, to take action immediately.”
Priscilla Bouchard, who lived in the home with her husband, Paul, and family friend Hiram Twist, said she doesn’t agree that the home is unsafe.
“He said because the roof is leaking, some of the wire got wet, so it’s dangerous,” Bouchard said of a city official. “But it always dries out. We’ve never had any problems. There’s never been a fire or nothing. We’ve got a fire extinguisher and everything.”
Overton said the city already had secured a hotel room at the city’s expense for the home’s occupants, and they would be allowed to go back to the home as many times as they needed to retrieve their belongings. He said officials understand the occupants can’t get all their belongings out of the home immediately, so they would be allowed to go back to retrieve items.
However, he said later Tuesday the occupants told him they had found another apartment, and they declined the offer of a hotel room.
Bouchard had said earlier Tuesday afternoon she, her husband and their friend weren’t sure what they were going to do. She said they were looking for an apartment in the area but hadn’t yet secured a new place to live.
Overton said he was pleasantly surprised that they were able to find an apartment so quickly, and officials would check to make sure 44 State St. remained unoccupied.
Overton said the city didn’t want to force the residents out and has had success helping tenants find safe places to live when other buildings have been ordered vacated.
Overton said the State Street building was owned by Pearl Wahl, who Priscilla Bouchard said was her mother, who died last month. Bouchard said they’ve lived in the home for 18 years.
Bouchard said her mother lived downstairs and they lived upstairs until her mother died. She said she took care of her mother while she was ill. She said the items accumulated upstairs while she was busy taking care of her mother. She said they could have the upstairs cleaned out in two weeks, if given a chance to do so.
She also said they already had some new shingles to fix the roof.
Bouchard said when her mother died, she, her husband and Twist moved from the upstairs to the downstairs. She said the second floor hasn’t been lived in for a year.
But Overton said it appeared to officials who walked through the building Monday that someone had been living upstairs recently. He said there was fresh food there, as well as medications that appeared to belong to the home’s current residents.
Overton said the city’s codes office became involved after receiving a report from a person who was concerned the building was not safe.
The home entered the tax foreclosure process in January or February, but Overton said the order to vacate the home was issued because the city deemed it unfit for occupation. He said that order wasn’t related to the foreclosure.
“The city has never kicked somebody out of their building for not paying their taxes,” Overton said. “In this case, we asked them to vacate because of the safety issues in the building.”
Bouchard said she tried to pay the money owed to the city for taxes on the building but was told it was too late. She said she thinks the city just wants the building.
It’s the second residential building in Augusta to be closed this month. On July 6, Overton said, 10 people were removed from a building at 44 Gage St. because flooding on the second floor caused much of the first-floor ceiling to collapse.
Michael Shepherd — 370-7652
Twitter: @mikeshepherdme
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @kedwardskj
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