Destructive downtown fire raises questions of how city can best address vacant buildings
Sep. 9—The flames rose high in the late-night sky Wednesday, creating a red-orange glow along Chester Avenue and 20th Street that drew crowds of onlookers and rubberneckers.
But by dawn Thursday, the brilliant light show had burned down to a stinky mess of soot, smoke stains and charred destruction.
The Bakersfield Fire Department used few words in a news release Thursday to sum it all up: The date, the time — 10:15 p.m. — the address, 2011 Chester Ave., and maybe the most telling fact of all:
The two-story commercial structure, and the one next door to it that was also heavily damaged (but not mentioned in the department's release) were both vacant. In fact, it appears no businesses had been active within those old walls for many years.
No one knows yet what caused the fire as it remains under investigation. But Ward 2 City Councilman Andrae Gonzales has seen too many of these fires in vacant buildings in his ward to wait patiently any longer.
"This is making me angry," he said Thursday. "I'm very frustrated, but not surprised."
There are any number of vulnerable vacant structures in the city's historic neighborhoods and urban core, Gonzales said.
They often become a public nuisance, a security problem, a hideaway for lawbreakers, a shelter for the shelterless, or a target for arsonists.
"It takes too long for city code enforcement to address these issues in any meaningful way," Gonzales said.
Yes, there has been a success story, he acknowledged, and another is in the works. But it's been 2 1/2 years since Gonzales made a referral in council chambers, asking that the city consider a new way of addressing the problem as the old way is clearly not working.
"We need to develop a sense of urgency on this issue," he said.
Last year, the fire department's Fire Investigations Unit made 43 felony arson arrests, and of those, 41 were transient or homeless individuals. According to those numbers, transients made up 95 percent of the department's arson arrests.
Businesses are often forced to install security measures, cameras, reinforced doors and windows, even razor wire on their rooflines. Many are paying private security after recognizing that traditional law enforcement is too busy answering more urgent calls.
At the scene of the fire Thursday afternoon, Kern County Museum Executive Director Mike McCoy said he remembered as a child each week walking into the building at the northwest corner of Chester and 20th back when it was a Thrifty Drug Store.
McCoy would have been coming from his clarinet lesson at Gutcher's Music Store across the street.
"Every week, I'd get a Zero candy bar and a comic book — Sgt. Rock, usually," he remembered.
Funny how an old building can act as a time capsule, a connection to the past that can't be replaced when, one dark night, that building goes down in flames.
Stephen Humphreys, a former commissioner on the city of Bakersfield's Historic Preservation Commission, also serves as a trustee for the Kern County Historical Society.
The building that later housed the Thrifty Drug, Humphreys said, was built in 1890 after the great fire of 1889.
It was the Masonic Temple. But it also housed many different businesses over the years, he said. The other building, where the fire started was originally the Weil-Fergeson building dating back to circa 1909.
"It was Bakersfield Hardware for many years," Humphreys said.
Local teacher and professional artist Yvonne Cavanagh has lived in Bakersfield nearly all her life.
But one night in late August, a fire engulfed the abandoned home behind her and her husband's house.
The vacant house was gutted, and the fire took out the couple's fence, backyard and damaged their garage.
"Since this has happened, I have learned of many fires that have occurred in the Oleander area," Cavanagh said in an email.
They reported the problem-house to code enforcement, but it didn't keep people out. Now Cavanagh wonders what can be done about the abandoned and boarded up houses in her neighborhood.
"We have enlisted the help of our homeowners insurance but I'm wondering how long we will be looking at this burned down house out our back window," she said.
What's worse is the feeling of helplessness, the realization that even the city doesn't seem to have the power, the means or the will to protect residents who care about their neighborhood.
"Who is the 'city of Bakersfield?'" she asked this reporter.
"I guess that's my main question," Cavanagh said. "Where does the buck stop?"
It turned out to be the hardest question of all.
Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.
