Fencing closing off People's Theater
ROANOKE RAPIDS — Someone cut through a chainlink fence placed on People’s Theatre after the Roanoke Rapids Fire Department attempted to secure the vacant building, an incident Fire Chief Richard Cook highlighted while warning City Council about growing safety concerns involving vacant commercial properties.
Cook told council the fire department had placed the chain on People’s Theatre last week in an effort to keep people out of the building.
“As a matter of fact, we put a chain last week on People’s Theatre,” Cook said. “I was called yesterday morning and we went and the chain had been cut.”
Cook said the department is doing what it can to keep people out of unsafe buildings, both for their own safety and to reduce the danger firefighters could face if called to an emergency at one of the properties.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep people out because we don’t want to have to risk the lives of these men back here,” Cook told council.
The People’s Theatre incident is part of what Cook described as a growing problem with vacant buildings inside Roanoke Rapids.
Cook said squatters have been found in some vacant buildings and told council that he had been inside two such buildings with the Roanoke Rapids Police Department the previous day while officers obtained evidence.
“I can tell you from being in there, it was not safe for us to be in there,” Cook said.
Those conditions become significantly more dangerous when firefighters are required to enter a structure during a fire, he explained.
Cook noted that firefighters may have to navigate an unfamiliar, smoke-filled building while wearing approximately 70 pounds of protective equipment. As the number of unsafe vacant buildings increases, he said, it has also become more difficult for firefighters to keep track of which structures are considered too dangerous to enter.
The fire department now plans to use provisions of the 2018 International Fire Code, which Cook said is the version currently being used by North Carolina, to formally identify unsafe commercial structures.
According to Cook, the fire department has authority to inspect the buildings, and structures determined by the fire marshal to be unsafe can be marked at their entrances.
The markings will include a prominent red “X,” alerting responding firefighters that the structure has been determined unsafe to enter under normal circumstances.
Cook stressed that the designation would not prevent firefighters from entering a building when they know someone is inside and needs to be rescued.
“They see somebody at the window, obviously they’re going to save them,” Cook said. “That’s what they’re trained to do.”
However, firefighters would not unnecessarily enter a structure that has already been determined to pose a danger.
Cook said firefighters have traditionally known which buildings around the city were considered “no-go” structures, but the increasing number of problem properties has made that informal system more difficult.
“There’s getting to be more and more of them, and it’s hard to keep track of what’s what,” Cook said.
He specifically pointed to several buildings in the 200 block of Roanoke Avenue that he said are not safe for firefighters to enter.
Cook also described a recent incident involving electricity being taken from one building to another.
“I don’t know why it didn’t cause a fire,” Cook said. “It was caught.”
The concern is not simply theoretical. Cook told council he believes firefighters will eventually be called to a fire at one of the unsafe structures, potentially in the middle of the night.
“When they get there at 3:00 in the morning and they see that big red X at the entrance, which is what the code states that it actually is posted at the entrance, then they know it’s a no-go building,” Cook said.
The department intends to begin inspecting and marking qualifying commercial buildings as early as next week, Cook said.
The effort will apply only to commercial properties. Cook said the fire code provision he discussed does not address residential buildings.
Cook also warned that firefighters historically have been killed or injured in buildings with these types of dangerous conditions.
Another concern is the possibility that people could be illegally occupying a vacant building when a fire occurs.
Unlike occupants who are expected to tell firefighters after escaping a burning building, Cook said someone who was not supposed to be inside a vacant structure may leave without telling emergency personnel that they are safely out.
That uncertainty could potentially lead firefighters to enter an already dangerous structure searching for someone they believe may still be inside.
Cook said the department will continue doing what it can to keep people out of the buildings while the new markings will provide firefighters with an immediate warning when responding to an emergency.
“We’re starting to get backed up against the wall,” Cook said. “So, this is our remedy to that — at least we can post it.”
