March 13, 2008
Mt. Pleasant Fire In Photos
Photo by m.j.b.
There are a number of other dramatic photos in the Flickr pool of last night's five-alarm fire in Mt. Pleasant, so we thought we'd post a few of them here. Below the jump, you'll find photos I took this morning from the scene of the fire, which firefighters were still working to extinguish completely at 10 a.m.
UPDATE: Via Hear Mt. Pleasant, donations are being accepted for victims of the fire at Neighbor's Consejo, located at 3118 16th Street NW. Contact Evar Sandoval at (202) 234-6855 to make a donation. Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham posted a note to neighborhood message boards and his own site reminding residents that low-income residents were the highest affected by the fire. There will also be a special prayer service at La Casa/Community of Christ at 3166 Mt. Pleasant St. NW at 9 p.m.
Photo by brandonwu
Photos above by Sommer Mathis
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who ever took the photos did a great job...
I can't believe I slept through this, a block away. To come out of my house this morning and see an absolute shell of a building left was heartbreaking. I have no doubts that the Mt. Pleasant community will pull together and help those that were affected. Please continue to post any means of contributing.
i know this is maybe a weird thought here, but what's the average turnaround on repair for houses/apartment buildings that burn here in DC? how long until they're reinhabitable? for example, how's that condo building on adams mill that burned last year doing?
I have a friend who owns a condo in the building that burned last fall -- the initial estimates to rebuild were about a year, but as far as I know they haven't started construction yet. Not sure what that means for the timeline.
Of course, the owners in a condo building might have a little more impetus to rebuild as quickly as possible, since now they're paying rent as well as mortgages and they can't sell their units until they're rebuilt. How fast the apartments get rebuilt probably will involve some calculation on the part of the owner regarding how much money he's losing every month the building goes unoccupied . . . and if he decides to turn it into condos, he might decide to wait until the market warms up a bit.
At the end of the day, most of the people renting those apartments probably won't return to the building, since they'll have found someplace else to live long before the building is rebuilt.
The sad thing is that since the building is no longer considered occupied, the landlord can now change it over to condos and doesn't have to let the old tenants back in if he converts. There was a good article this week in the Washington Post about this.
Sounds like the apartment building was in complete neglect and it was just a matter of time before this happened.
uh oh jnam, you probably just unwittingly provoked a rant from Hillman.
3,2,1...
From Hear Mount Pleasant:
More on how you can help the displaced from the fire at 3145 Mount Pleasant
In addition to the 200 people who lost everything to the fire at 3145 Mount Pleasant Street last night, hundreds more from surrounding buildings have been temporarily displaced.
Here are some more ways community members can help:
Emergency Cash Donations - Pfeiffer's Hardware is a collection point
Many people have asked how and where they can give cash assistance to victims of the fire. The Columbia Heights Shaw Family Support Collaborative is taking donations for a fund to pay for emergency shelter as well as other urgent necessities like medications lost in the blaze.
You can make checks payable to the Columbia Heights Shaw Family Support Collaborative and drop them off at Pfeiffer's Hardware - someone from the Collaborative will pick them up later this afternoon.
Housing and other volunteer needs
- go to Hearmountpleasant.org to send form to the Collaborative specifying housing or other volunteer services you can offer
Currently workers from the government and community agencies are working to find housing other help for the hundreds of people displaced in last nights fire. We have set up a database to collect and organize that information for the Collabortive as they coordinate relief efforts. If you have a room or a basement apartment you can offer please go to Hearmountpleasant.org
Clothing
Neighbors Consejo is the collection point for clothing donations from the community. They need help organizing and distributing the donations.
Neighbor's Consejo
3118 16th Street, NW
Contact: Evar Sandoval (202) 234-6855
Fundraising
Don Jaimie will collect donations and donate 20% of all brunch sales this weekend to assist victims.
Does anyone know what kind of donations are accepted, i.e., food, clothing, $$, etc?
Mount Pleasant Main Street Association is having a fund raiser wine tasting event next Tuesday at Marx Cafe from 7-9pm. Part of the proceeds will go to help the victims of the fire last night.
We are also collecting donations via our website, http://www.mtpmainstreet.org/
No, no. No rant from me. I've given up caffeine temporarily.
All I will do is post to an MIT study showing the relationship between rent control and the crappy condition of old apartment buildings.
http://www.nmhc.org/Content/ServeFile.cfm?FileID=119
It's a fairly tedious read, but if after reading that people don't see the stupidity of relying on rent control and ridiculous tenants rights (like allowing tenants the 'right' to refuse to vacate an apartment temporarily to make repairs and upgrades to systems like fire safety and electrical), then you don't think there's a legit point then really there may be no hope for your reasoning skills.
Again, though, I'm not commenting on this particular fire because I know nothing about it.
Wow.
Amazing.
Updates and Immediate Needs of the Fire Victims
http://www.hearmountpleasant.org
Updates and Immediate Needs of the Fire Victims
www.hearmountpleasant.org
Updates and Immediate Needs of the Fire Victims
www.hearmountpleasant.org