Major Fire at Quincy’s Old City Hall – Project Safety Concerns Validated?

Old Quincy City Hall Fire Damage
Quincy Quarry News Photo

A 3 Alarm Fire at Quincy’s Old City Hall ravaged the old City Hall renovation project. The fire was called in shortly before 12:50 AM Tuesday morning.

The fire was so intense that exterior stone work near a back corner of the building was damaged. (See photo left.)

This still-breaking story follows close on the heels of recent exclusive Quincy Quarry coverage of apparent crane safety violations on the project site and which the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety and perhaps OSHA investigated.

The City Hall fire also closely follows Quincy Quarry’s exclusive coverage of construction and building codes concerns on the city’s still ongoing Coddington Hall renovation project.

Any specific information as to the cause of the fire has yet be provided to any media so Quincy Quarry was not the only news medium not provided with answers. (See photo below).

Old Quincy City Hall Fire
Quincy Quarry News Photo (click for larger image)

At most, the South Shore broadsheet has reported that Quincy police view the fire as “suspicious.”
This reporter was, however, the only one told to leave an adjacent and safe adjacent property while in the process of covering the story in spite of the fact that no police or fire safety yellow tape or other perimeter boundary was in place where this reporter was covering the story.

Apparently, Quincy Quarry is uniquely not welcome outside of the secured area in the wake of previous critical coverage.

Quincy Quarry also continues to have yet to obtain press credentials from the mayor’s brother-in-law Quincy Police Chief Paul “The Beav” Keenan; however, such credentials are essentially only good for access to within a public safety cordon so as to cover a story.

In any event, the fire occurred just as this widely expected to be running behind schedule as well as probably over budget project was starting to finally show obvious signs of progress to passersby.

Now, however, completion of the project has surely been set back many more months as well as likely to also run over budget even if one of the project’s contractors is found liable for the fire and so hit with the bill.

If, however, the fire was not caused by any contractor’s negligence, the cost will be imposed upon Quincy taxpayers as the city typically self-insures itself but does not fund any potential liability reserve accounts.

Given the lack of such reserves, local taxpayers are already facing millions in payouts to the Woodward School for Girls over the maladministration of the Adams trust fund mostly by past – but including some still alive – city fathers as the Koch Maladministration is already on record as saying that this impending payout will require a city bond debt issuance.

Additional cases of also likely to be expensive litigation for local taxpayers are also pending.

A follow on lawsuit by Woodward School was filed last spring.

Local taxpayers may also find themselves on the hook for millions over the long ongoing C-Mart dispute and for which the judge’s ruling is imminent.
Even more financial burden may be imposed upon local taxpayers on top of the millions to date in the wake of the collapse of the mayor’s grandiose plans for Quincy Center as litigation on unpaid bills moves forward.

Expect more in-depth coverage by Quincy Quarry on this and the many other crises facing Quincy.
 
QQ Disclaimer