LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — After a large fire broke out on Monday night in an abandoned building along Asher Avenue, there has now been a resurgence in safety concerns regarding vacant buildings throughout the city of Little Rock.
The fire began just after 5:00 p.m. and Little Rock Fire Captain Jacob Lear-Sadowsky explained how it took crews several hours to put everything out.
"Well, it makes it harder, but it's also more dangerous for us because the floors could be weakened and compromised, not knowing that that lower level is there on first arrival," said Captain Lear-Sadowsky.
Now, the Little Rock Fire Department is urging people to stay away from abandoned structures. Not only for safety reasons, but it could make their jobs harder.
"We still have to treat abandoned and vacant structures to have a potential life in it. Regardless of how unsafe the structure may be we still have to keep that on our radar and possibly send crews in to do searches for that," he added.
Monday evening's call was the sixth fire call to that vacant building since 2017, and it has been condemned since about 2022.
"Those processes take time. But I think, you know, if this building had been condemned a while ago and was addressed in a timely manner, you know, we would have avoided the fire," said Lear-Sadowsky.
Little Rock Housing Director Kevin Howard explained the city has been working to reduce the number of vacant homes through the demolition process. They have also been working with local groups to try to revitalize and rebuild other buildings.
"We were at probably around 1,100 several years ago. We've gotten that number down to about 500 now," Howard said. "We have our emergency demolitions that we do. We had to come to condemnations and then we have our unsafe and vacant structures and also we work with public partners, public and private partnerships."
Meanwhile, the city is also working to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to further reduce vacant structures in Little Rock.
If you're concerned about a nearby abandoned building, you're asked to contact the city's code enforcement office. For more information, please click here.