1965-05-17 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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M ~ • . Hon. H. P. Pfeiffer, Et Al Page 2 May 4, 1965 who have used the same as a place to sleep, drink, and to use the floor as a toilet many times. The second floor, like the first, is in a very unsanitary condition. The room is cluttered with old paper, rags, a mattress, boxes, bottles, and other items of fur- niture, inviting a place for fire to start. The wallpaper hangs from the overhead, and the windows are broken in most places, and the floor is rotting away in places. The entire building is infested with termites, and is definitely unsuitable for human habitation. The building is probably the single worse fire hazard in the City of La Porte. Because of its condition, the surrounding buildings have been "penalty rated" for fire insurance purposes. As stated above, transients and vagrants have used the building, and six different fires have been started on the second floor by such persons, on the mattresses, probably from cigaret smoking. • Because of its unsound structural condition, the building is lean- ing, mainly because the sills, floor joists, and floors are rotted through. The building in question is immediately adjacent to another buil- ding, containing an apartment on its second floor, and the present tenant in the apartment is an elderly woman. The subject building is a serious fire hazard, and, should it catch on fire, there is serious doubt if the elderly tenant in the adjoining apartment could be safely rescued by the fire department. Further, it is un- questionable that the resulting fire would communicate to buildings on both the east and west sides of the subject building. Therefore, it is our opinion that the subject building, for want of repair; by reason of age; by reason of its dilapidated condition; by reason of the fact that it is and has been vacant for some time, and has been used by vagrants and transients; by reason of the bad condition of the walls, and lack of guards against fire, is a fire hazard, of a very serious nature, and is so situated as to endanger the person and property of others, and endangers the safety of life and property in surrounding buildings. C~