Historic Newport
AT RISK
166 Spring Street / located at Spring and Mill Street. Not lived in.
This Fire Report is dated April 10, 2007:
Subject: the fire at Spring Street and Mill Street / 166 Spring Street. The Hill Association Board met at my home (152 Spring Street) tonight April 10, 2007 at 7 p.m. We met in the dining room. The meeting lasted about 1.5 hours and the last item on the agenda was that Jack and Ann Twomey who own property on Sherman Street were to be discussed at the next Historic District Commission meeting concerning their derelict property on that street. A Hill member and neighbor was prepared to complain to the H.D.C. and ask for action about their Sherman Street Property. We discussed and approved that Hill Board members would ask the H.D.C. to look into the derelict and abandoned condition of the Twomey's other Hill properties: 166 Spring Street, 62 Mill Street and 219 Spring Street. The next meeting of the H.D.C. is April 17th at 6:30 p.m. at Newport City Hall. President Peter Goff call the meeting adjourned and board members left in singles and pairs. Two Board Members, Virginia Baldwin and Virginia Long left together and walked from our home (152 Spring) took a right on Church and a right on Division. Saying good by, one noticed a strong smell of smoke, walked down Division to Mill and down Mill and found the back of the home at Spring and Mill 166 Spring Street fully in flames. Virginia Baldwin ran to my door at 152 Springs, rang the bell and screamed to call 911 and a fire truck. I called 911 using a cell phone at app. 8:45 p.m. and fire trucks arrived within 2 or 3 minutes. The flames were so fierce that I believed that our home which is within 15 feet of the Twomey building would also catch fire. (152 Spring in next to the Twomey home: 166 Spring Street) Within half an hour the fire was under control. Though heavily damaged, it is possible for the structure to be restored. For years we have complained to the City: Fire Department, Police Department, various City Managers, Various Mayors and numerous City Councilors to do something about the Twomey properties. Virtually NOTHING has been done. There is some kind of aura about these two residents that no one wants to deal with. We did get the City to board up the home that burned tonight years ago ( Feb of 2000) because we caught vagrants living in the basement, in the dead of winter, and were keeping warm by lighting a fire in the basement. No one has lived in the house that burned in over a decade. We have owned the property at 152 Spring Street since 1999. An abandoned auto is stored between the house that burned and the house at 62 Mill Street; the Twomey's they live the second floor apartment at 62 Mill Street. The oil furnace at 62 Mill Street is vented through a pipe in the basement window; we have complained about that and no one has done anything. All the Twomey properties should be taken from their control. They are fire hazards and tonight's fire is the proof. The Twomeys are directly responsible for the deplorable condition of these properties. The City Government has been asked over and over and over to do something and it has been up to the past Newport City Councils to act and THEY HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO ACT ! Now the oldest of these historic properties will have to be demolished. Must the City wait until the rest catch on fire before some action is taken? Federico Santi and John Gacher 152 Spring Street Newport, RI 02840 1-401-841-5060
FIRE IMAGES
There are now several major roof holes which were either burned away during the fire or vented by the Newport Fire Department to contain the fire.
Piles of debris cover the yard: contents pulled out by the Newport Fire Department. We were told that the amount of refuse and garbage stored inside this house made it extremely difficult for the Newport Fire Department to pull fire hoses to the location of the fire in several of the rooms.
So now there is no covering over the holes in the roof and we have had torrential and continuous rain lately.
The plastic sheeting covering several of the windows that blew out during the conflagration have come loose allowing the rain and critters to invade the house.
Painting is the only work of note on this 18th century home over the last decade.
The yard is overgrown with trees which cause mold encourage rot.
The back yard (facing Mill Street) is cluttered with old wood, junk, trash cans and volunteer junk trees. mosquitoes thrive in the damp and dank environment.
The recessed doorway in uncommon in Newport.
Some of the gutters have rotted away to the roof line of the house encouraging continued deterioration of the building.
It is unlikely that any of the clapboard can be saved.
This lower window rot can be cause by carpenter ants, Mason bees or just water/rot damage. If not attending to, it spreads like a cancer to other areas below the opening.
Corners of the sill board when rot appears usually hides a more serious structural problem. One would suspect that many of the sills will have to be replaced in this home.
Boarded windows: a few years ago, it was discovered that vagrants were living in the basement and using an open fire to keep warm: police and fire departments were called and the city boarded up the bulkhead and windows on the garden side.
The is an evident bow to the Mill Street side of the first story. The exterior wall support seems to be giving away. Carpenter ants are noticeable in the immediate area.
Visitors since 01-17-01
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