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Gutted South Boston triple decker that began to wobble in the wind is pulled down

Mike V. watched a crew today tear down the 306 West 3 St. building that started shaking so much at the height of the storm Friday that BFD ordered the evacuation of its neighboring houses just in case it collapsed altogether.

Lisa Makara reports a developer gutted the building last fall, then just stopped renovation work.

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Comments

Sad!

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I would be interested to learn if the owner had been denied a permit to raze and rebuild something larger. Either way, the city needs to crack down before this trend gets out of hand. Feigned incompetence shouldn't be allowed to become the accepted work-around to the planning process.

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There is still a lot of money to be made in gutting these structures. The problem is that they are very vulnerable once they are stripped out due to their original construction methods. You cannot plan on there being a convenient storm at a convenient time.

It might have been okay had we not had 40mph winds with gusts sufficient to blow people off of their feet. It is also possible that it was not structurally sound to begin with, and it is silly to insist that every such structure can and should be saved.

I would question whether there is enough oversight when it comes to demolition and to gut renovation of structures. Such a gut renovation of a triple-decker in Cambridge burned down an entire neighborhood. They should be inspected for proper shoring and fire safety.

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"fire safety."

once you remove drywall fire safety is no longer a thing.

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Gee i don't know.. 100+ year old wood that has been drying behind plaster walls for decades would make great firewood. The drier the better.

Sure furnishings and drywall make fire situations more dangerous. but never underestimate nice & dry beams. (which is why commercial has switched to metal whenever possible since wood burns too easily)

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Commercial in Massachusetts has switched to metal. In other states, you still see large multistory buildings being built out of wood. They first construct the buildings' stairwells as tall concrete columns in the middle of nothing, and then the rest of the building is filled out with sticks.

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Strictly enforced no-smoking rules
Fire alarms
Job site housekeeping
Management of ignition sources and fuels

There are many things that can be done and are done by responsible contractors.

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No such thing as fire alarms (central station) in buildings under construction. At least not in Boston.

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than building demolition.

We're all 7-year-olds at heart.

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My inner seven year old greatly enjoys seeing the crane out my office window pick up the port-a-potty and move it up to each newly constructed level of a stair core going up nearby.

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Were they lacking the correct permit for the front door?

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You can't see it, but they left the whole staircase to the second floor too!

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