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Nine-alarm fire destroys empty industrial building in Chelsea

NBC Boston reports on the fire at the old Forbes complex, which brought firefighters from Chelsea and surrounding cities, on Crescent Avenue.

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This is the forbes site, which is an old factory building on a strip of land between the creek and the CR tracks. There have been several attempts to redevelop this area but due to its location. (see here) its a hard spot to get to. Let alone, trying to put out a fire here.

I would call this suspicious because you gotta go over there to be over there. It's so remote.

But knowing Chelsea, we have alot of vagrants, so who knows if people were living in those buildings and started the fire.

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1m condos in Chelsea!

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Nah. They tried. This area is just a remote area. The only way into it is across a rickety bridge from a residential neighborhood that puts up a fight when talk of big development here due to traffic.

The bridge would need to be replaced as apart of any development, along with finding a new way to access the property with a new road. There just isn't a good way to do that.

I don't think burning down the building would accelerate the development. I think it would hinder it now there's clean up that has to be done to tear down what burned last night. Again, b/c of the rickety bridge, there's no good way to do that at the moment.

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I looked at that Google Maps link you posted and it looks like there's two bridges across the tracks never to one another. One is old and rusty and the other is newer. But the old one is the one that gets used.

On Google maps if you click the link for the "park" that's on the far edge there are some interesting photos of the inside of the factory.

Looks like a great plot of land. Too bad it isn't used for anything.

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I think both are mere 'temporary' bridges. I can't recall what the deal is with the new one, but I assume its due to the neighborhood not wanting traffic going thru it.

I think it would be a great outdoor concert venue. Yes its near a neighborhood but you could position the stage away from the neighborhood to deflect the sound toward the creek.

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Streetview has a little (likely unintended) easter-egg from the Cyberpunk Universe - the security sign on the gate to presumably get onto the site is listed as being monitored by Netwatch. In Cyberpunk, Netwatch is the quasi-governmental agency that monitors and patrols the internet, with particular interest in fighting against hackers and rogue AIs.

Made me chuckle to see a sign with their name on it.

Also, it seems like you're probably right in that it's a suspicious location for a fire to randomly start.

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Is La Mesa Market ok?!?!

…. the more interesting sights to be seen on the train to Rockport. I think it’s the same one that years ago had a big long Charlestown Chew sign on it.
I daydreamed about kayaking to the shore nearby and exploring the buildings. Sorry it is no more.

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The charleston chew building was near 16. Its now condos that were initially called "The Charleston Lofts"

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I haven't been down that way in a while, but it used to be fenced at the waterline.

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Can't remember the dates, probably 2005-2010 ish.
But some developer guy worked out a big plan for that tract of land. They wanted to create a completely "green" living neighborhood... It was even going to have a gray -water system... And a wind turbine (which can barely be seen in the satellite Google view).
He got a huge grant from the state with the idea that the wind turbine was gonna make plenty of electricity.
Fast forward a bit... The land was heavily contaminated from it's previous life (something to do with photography/printing... Can't remember exact wording) AND the completed turbine DIDN'T produce the estimated electrical generation that the guy promised (which was part of a threshold minimum to be considered for that give state-funded grant).
The state sued him to get their money back... The turbine has been motionless since... And all the green dream turned into abandoned property again.
It was during the turbine installation that the newer bridge was built over the train tracks.

Tho it seemed like the perfect area to go vandalize and explore, the local neighborhood was pretty vigilant in calling the cops on any trespassers... And back then, the cops actually did cop-things and investigated such calls, complete with arrests.

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