Syracuse police and fire investigators are trying to determine the cause of the massive fire Friday evening that collapsed parts of the former Maria Regina College on the city’s north side. There are plans to redevelop the sprawling vacant campus into housing.
Firefighters were on the scene until 9 a.m. Monday checking for leftover hot spots, and will continue to monitor the building. Meanwhile, the investigation begins, and police chief Joe Cecile said they’ve already spoken with witnesses.
“Folks from the community who believe they saw something suspicious prior to the to the fire, so we've been interviewing them," Cecile said. "We've been going through countless camera footage, not only our own COPS camera footage, but as you can imagine, there's businesses in the area that have cameras and we have a lot of ring cameras on these residential properties. So we've been looking at that footage.”
Cecile said the building has a history of vandalism, and there were signs that people have been staying there in recent months. The campus has been empty for at least a decade, and Deputy Commissioner of Code Enforcement Jake Dishaw said it’s been a challenge to protect it from trespassers and the elements.
“We've had a vacant structure case on this whole premises since it went vacant," Dishaw said. "This is an owner who promised to maintain the structure to keep its integrity and its historical worth and value. But we've seen zero effort from them over the years.”
Dishaw said the city has spent nearly $40,000 in just the last year boarding up the building, installing fences, mowing the lawn and cleaning up trash. The property is in the process of being sold to Home Leasing based in Rochester, which says is still committed to developing at least 150 units of affordable housing. Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens said the city also remains dedicated to the project.
“We have to see what we have in coordination with codes, our police department, our fire department, neighborhood and business development, the developer, their teams coming in, taking a look at what is left of the building assessing where we are so that we know the best path forward," Owens said.
The city and engineers will determine if the damaged 130-year-old building is structurally sound or if it needs to be demolished.
