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Four-alarm fire hits empty apartment building in Allston
By adamg on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 9:20am
Firefighters at 79 Brighton. Photo by BFD.
Fire investigators are at 79 Brighton Ave. to try to determine what sent the apparently vacant building up in flames early this morning.
The Boston Fire Department reports firefighters responded around 6:05 a.m. to heavy fire already showing from the three-story brick building.
The department reports firewalls did their job and prevented further spread and thanked whoever had earlier shoveled out nearby hydrants:
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Comments
Google maps shows it boarded
Google maps shows it boarded up in September
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=79+Brighton+Avenue,+Boston,+MA&hl=en&ll=4...
Electrical?
BFD tweeted it was due to an electrical short circuit - I'm suprised that that building was receiving electricity since it was forclosed on back in 2009 and has been boarded up for several years.
boarded up sometime between
boarded up sometime between Google driving by in August 2013 and driving by again in September 2013. And I'm not sure the foreclosure has ever gone through. Appears to have been delayed by JP Morgan trying to get its WaMu assets straightened out.
Fair enough - I was wondering
Fair enough - I was wondering why it had never come back on the market
Our real heroes in action
Firefighters don't push the "hero" thing in your face, though. They just go into burning buildings to save people and, sometimes, don't come back out. Then they say "its my job".
I've noticed this place
Nevermind, questions cleared up elsewhere in this thread.
Reckless lending
The city still lists David and Joanne Ferrick of Winchester as the owners. They bought it for $1,225,000 in 2005, getting 100% financing from Washington Mutual. It's assessed as a three family, for $785,000. It look like they put up their Winchester home as collateral as well. The mortgage was assigned to JP Morgan Chase by the FDIC, which held it after WaMu went under. This was recorded at the Suffolk Registry of Deeds in November 2014. It looks like JP Morgan has held the mortgage since it took over the what was left of WaMu.
There is no record that the bank ever took possession of the property, at least that I could find. The city has filed liens for nonpayment of taxes.