– News about Quincy MA from Quincy Quarry News.

A City on hold?
A Quincy Quarry News file photo.

Quincy’s City Hall Fire official investigation report findings finally see the light of day care of the dogged persistence of Quincy Quarry.

Per the final report by the State Fire Marshall and which was apparently obtained exclusively by Quincy Quarry as far as other Media are concerned, the devastating fire last September inside of Quincy’s historic old City Hall was at least partially facilitated by less than secure construction site security.

Additionally, the damage done was all but assuredly worsened to substantially worsened given a faulty fire alarm system.

Report findings include that the back of the building was essentially wide open as well as was also variously otherwise easily accessible at other points of its exterior.

Security camera added after fire – click on picture for larger image

Additionally, and as already admitted by city officials, the construction site did not have any security monitoring equipment in place until after the fire when there was no longer much left of value to protect from possible vandalism.

Further problematic, as well as noted previously, the State Fire Marshall’s report specifically notes that the temporary fire alarm system for the construction site was not functioning properly at the time of the late night fire.

Quincy Quarry did not obtain a comment from the found to be patronage-impacted Quincy Fire Department on this likely substantial fire code safety shortcoming.

Sheesh
A Warner Brothers image

Other facts apparently not reported by the media previously include that an unidentified caller called in the fire to the Quincy Fire Department.

One can only now also wonder why the Quincy Fire Department failed to endeavor to at least identify the phone number of the caller.

After all, various backtracking capabilities are readily available to readily trace such calls.

For example, *69 for an automatic callbacks or dialing *57 to tag a call from a caller ID blocked phone for the telephone company to then later identify after appropriate legal steps are undertaken, not to mention surely all manner of other options apparently increasingly available in the wake of the enactment of the so-called Patriot Act.

Most every little boy’s dream ride
A QualityPedalCars.com © photo

Additionally hindering the suspected criminal side of the investigation, the only innocent third party person on the scene when the fire broke out – someone camping out that night in the adjacent Hancock Cemetery and of which Quincy Quarry has previously cited as occurring – saw nothing.

After all, if one can sleep in a cemetery, such a person can sleep through anything.

As for the cause of the fire, investigators confirmed that a party or parties unknown appear(s) to have attempted to use an oxy-acetylene torch on the site and that this probably ignited the fire.

Quincy City Hall Fire Cleanup
Quincy Quarry News file photo

The likely cause of the fire, however, was not necessarily caused by someone attempting to steal copper as previously reported.

Rather, given a scent alarm by a trained fire dog aptly named Damian and following post-fire interviews with construction company employees, it would appear that the person or persons using the torch were trying to break into a locked plastic tool storage vault that contained flammable liquids.

The vault was thus, in turn, destroyed in the fire.

QPD Chief Paul “The Beav” Keenan
A City of Quincy photo

Further, the report cited that some fingerprints were noted in the final report as gathered at the scene and sent along for further review; however, the report failed to note if any useful matches were made.

As no arrest(s) or related announcements have been made to date, one can only assume that the prints have so far not been found to be useful.

Quincy Quarry did not reach out to Quincy Police Chief and mayoral brother-in-law Paul “The Beav” Keenan for comment because it knew he would not comment.

What the insurance company decides to do given the various shortcomings in site security remains to be seen.

In the meanwhile, the total all-inclusive costs and delays on the grandiose, gut wall and all but museum grade renovation of Old City Hall continue to grow.

Per this most recent report, the all inclusive cost of the project was anticipated to run an extra $1,500,000.00 as well as be completed roughly six months behind schedule.

With the past as prologue on both this as well as essentially all other Koch Maladministration projects, these figures should be considered as but tentative estimates that will all but assuredly be increased as events play out.

Quincy Quarry will continue to follow this still evolving story as well as report on new developments as appropriate.

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