Tags: 
Five alarm flames
A Jay Sekora image
– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.
Quincy hit by massive five-alarm fire in Wollaston Center; 3 buildings destroyed and others damaged.
This morning’s quiet on a relatively warm and sunny day in Quincy was upended by a massive five alarm fire on Newport Avenue just opposite the currently closed MBTA Red Line Wollaston station.
So considerable was the fire that the major local roadways of Newport Avenue and Beale Street were closed by first responders.
The site of today’s fire is at least adjacent to the site of a major fire in 2015.
2015 fire at same venue
A Quincy Quarry News file photo
Additionally, Quincy Quarry is following up on word received of another fire in the past year or thereabouts involving at least one of the buildings destroyed in this latest fire.
In turn, such baits only proper questions as to just how strenuous were the City of Quincy’s building inspections of the major repairs undertaken in the wake of the 2015 fire as such repairs are typically required to at least move such a repaired building closer to current building codes and which include improved fire safety requirements.
Additionally, one can only wonder how the fire so quickly when to five alarm status as the Quincy Fire Department’s Wollaston Fire Station is literally just around the corner from the site of today’s fire.
Yes!! Finally a report on the Wollaston fire that hits on the major holes in all other reports. What is going on there!!!!
One of my relatives, a young adult, was displaced by this fire. So too were 29 other lives upended without anything being provided by any agency, much less the owner of those buildings.
Who is the owner? If I owned those buildings, my name would be all over the front page — but the neither the owner nor the management company names have been reported. There were no electric power lines or gas lines supplying the building that went up in flames. It was supposed to be under construction with a permit issued in October 2018. Did you see any progress before the fire??? I didn’t.
Why does it take since October 2018 to do nothing to a building with no progress other than a 5 alarm fire on March 12, 2019? My relative (the young adult) has not been informed by building management as to when he can move back into the apartment building that remains. Only this building remains standing given the heroic effort by the fire fighters. The units on the side of this building facing the fire have windows broken and water damage due to the need for firefighters to hold the line. That side of that side of the building was also damaged by fire but there are no boards up covering the damaged windows. The units on side of the building where my relative resides were not touched other than smoke damage.
BOARD OF HEALTH law calls for a landlord/owner to compensate tenants displaced more than a short period (few days) due to fire.
Do you think the 30 souls left on the street without a home seeking shelter elsewhere with no contact from the property management as to whether they will ever be able to return even know they have a right to compensation based on law?
Conversely, these tenants have all already paid their March rent in advance and thus the owner has in hand approximately $30,000 in rent money; however, rent paid notwithstanding, given the fire the tenants were essentially evicted with no contact from the apartment building’s owner. My relative persisted and persisted and learned nothing other than that the insurance company is supposed to be looking at the property tomorrow.
Post fire site security has also been a problem. The back door was left open with a shovel holding it open the night of the fire and discovered by my relative; inside all the apartments were not secured with doors broken open. Anyone could have gone in. The firefighters were in the front of the building and alerted by my relative that the back door was not secured. My relative is not going back.
This is obviously wrong. Is someone being paid under the table to turn a blind eye to the blight on that section of Quincy or are city officials just looking the other way? When will people wake up and demand that something be done? How can anyone witness the suffering of these displaced people? Many are homeless now as well as ignorant of their rights as tenants displaced by fire.
If this was Milton, Hingham or Cohasset, this would not be tolerated. But in Quincy, local officials and others turn a blind eye to the marginal — the old, and the young who lived there and paid their rent; good tenants who did not cause this fire but who are now paying for it.