GROVETON — A set of apartments on FM 355 south of town, formerly decent dwellings for newlyweds and others but now housing squatters, burned down on Saturday.
Firefighters and engines from numerous agencies helped battle the blaze, which Groveton Fire Chief Glenn Hammond said was “human caused.”
“I don’t know if it’s actually arson,” Hammond said. “It has been known to see drug-related activity there along with homeless people staying there. We didn’t put it out; we just kept it off the other building and the vegetation around the property.”
He said that all the other county fire departments — Trinity, 356, Pennington, Apple Springs and Friday. A few minutes after GVFD was toned out, a second call went out about a gas smell at Lady in Action, which was attended by the Apple Springs VFD before they arrived at the apartment fire.
Sheriff Woody Wallace said that the fire appears to have started on the second floor in the middle of the building.
“There’s no power to the complex, and we’re unsure what started it,” he said. “We will investigate further.
“The property was on our list of places to get notice to the owner to clean the property or face legal action,” he said.
Property owner Khosrow Sadeghian said he has been trying auction off the property but has had little luck; he said the event was sad because the buildings could not be insured because of their condition.
Sadeghian said he even had approached the city to offer the land as a potential jail site.
He claimed that criminals have been living in the structures, and he has tried to get them removed.
“They did us wrong,” he said.
Hammond said the city has condemned the complex and urged the council to do something about the ones still standing as they are a hazard to the community.
However, he posted on Facebook that as chief of the Groveton Volunteer Fire Department, he extends his appreciation to all the county fire departments that came and assisted with the apartment fires on FM 355 on Saturday.
“I think as a County we have exceptional fire departments, and we all work well together,” he said.
