NEW ORLEANS -- The remains of the heavily damaged hotel stand next to Tulane Avenue like a monument to blight. Firefighters left caution tape up to cordon off the debris on the sidewalk from pedestrians.
Other parts of the building appear about to fall., so neighbors e-mailed the Action Line.
"It really hurts our property values to be next to this hotel," said Nhu Le, owner of Maximum Staffing. "There's a lot of debris on the street. ... It just looks terrible. Not only the danger; it just looks terrible."
80 firefighters spent three hours battling the four-alarm blaze that broke out April 3.
"Oh, they were amazing. They actually saved our building," Le said.
Jeffrey Williams risked his life, and got burned when he checked the blazing building to make sure no one was inside.
"It was hot in there," Williams said. "It was really extremely hot."
Neighbors say they contacted the city months ago, and they were so afraid there would be a fire they bought extra insurance.
"Last November when it started to get cold," Nhu Le said, "I noticed a lot of people coming out of the building, and so my concern was that when it got really cold they would start fires."
They say city officials never even replied to their e-mail of phone messages. Now they worry a second fire could happen.
"There's a back portion of the hotel that wasn't touched by the fire, and there are people living back there," Le said. "I'm very afraid. I'm sure it is just a matter of time before another fire gets started."
There is a new concern that the walls could detach from the damaged structure, and fall on their building.
"You know what? It could fall down while we're here, and we have kids in the back," Le said.
I'm contacting officials at City Hall, first asking them to clean up the debris, but then to secure the building, and to tear it down as quickly as possible, before more of it falls down, potentially endangering lives.
"We were lucky that our business neighbors across the street were able to call in the fire almost immediately," Le said. "Now we may not be that lucky when it happens on the other side."
I'll let you know what happens.
