READING, Pa. -- A fire last week in the basement of a city house in which doors and hallways were blocked by furniture and refuse was quickly extinguished, but could have been catastrophic, Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer said Tuesday.
Spencer held a press conference to announce his plans to strictly enforce a new city codes ordinance that cracks down on illegal rental properties and properties that aren't up to code.
"The fire last week brought up a lot of safety issues," Spencer said. "Last week's fire turned out to be a simple dryer fire, but it could have been worse."
When firefighters arrived at the smoldering row house, they couldn't get into the building because doorways were blocked.
And, Spencer said, many times access problems occur at illegal rental properties. Spencer said he will be going out today with city codes manager Ronald Natale to mark illegal rentals with placards.
"The intent will be to crack down on these illegal rental properties that we have in the city," Spencer said.
Fire Marshal Todd Iaeger said access issues vary from alleys choked with refuse to doors and hallways blocked by children's toys, entertainment centers, Christmas trees, old newspapers and magazines and other items.
Iaeger declined to give particulars on the dryer fire last week but said it is a call firefighters typically remember.
"They are memorable either because the firefighters couldn't get in, couldn't get out, or couldn't get someone else out of the building," Iaeger said.
Iaeger said the tendency of some residents to collect or hoard things in their homes has come to the public's attention through the television show "Hoarders," but the truth is the practice has been a bane to firefighters for a long time.
Natale said that beginning today the department will also crack down on clogged alleys and people living in condemned buildings.
He asked residents who notice an occupied placarded building to call the city's Citizen Service Center at 877-727-3234 and report the property.
Copyright 2012 - Reading Eagle, Pa.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
