NEW ORLEANS — UPDATE: The New Orleans Fire Department says that two squatters - a man and a woman - admitted they were using a grill for heat and accidentally knocked it over. The NOFD believes that is how the fire that destroyed the home on Kerlerec Street began.
A fire gutted a blighted building on Kerlerec Street Wednesday night. Neighbors were just days away from a formal meeting with Councilmember Freddie King to talk about the years of complaints they have lodged against the owner. Now, King has promised to have the building demolished as soon as possible.
The fire began a little before 10 p.m. Wednesday. William Crouch was in the empty lot across the street when he noticed it. He immediately started running to neighbors’ houses and banging on their doors to make sure they got out safely. “I knew it was gonna be bad,” he said.
The fire spread to the entire building within minutes. “The flames were shooting pretty high, I would say a couple of stories above the roof level,” said Flori Schutzer, who was staying at a friend’s house nearby. She added that it “was very windy,” which appeared to be making the fire worse.
In the meantime, Crouch was running around the corner to the house next door on Henriette Delille Street, which is only feet away from the then-flaming building. He approached one of the residents and asked if anyone was upstairs and “she said, ‘yeah, my children,’” said Crouch. He then ran into the upstairs apartment and led the children downstairs.
By then, the flames had completely swallowed the house. Video provided to WWL Louisiana by local photographer Christopher Ryan shows a dramatic scene, with dozens of firefighters working to douse the flames.
After retrieving the children from the neighboring home, Crouch finally ran back to the field across the street. “The ashes are coming down and burning holes in my clothes and I’m like, oh yeah, I might need to get away from this now,” he said with a laugh.
Crouch is unhoused and said he has lived outside, on and off, for two years. He moved to New Orleans two months ago. When asked why he risked his life to make sure the neighbors got out safely, his answer was simple– “people are important, just wanted everybody to be okay.”
Thanks in part to him, everybody was. No one was injured in the fire and firefighters were able to bring it under control within an hour.
The building, though, is a total loss, and there is damage to the side of the multi-family home next door and minor damage to another. The fire is the grand finale of a years-long drama over the building and its owner.
According to city documents, Chicago native Ayodele Love bought the building in 2021. He began to rack up thousands of dollars in fines.
“We were hoping [Love] was going to clean it up, come to find out [he] did nothing to it,” said Patrick Hill. He and other neighbors have lodged many complaints against the building, which Hill says is the frequent home of drug activity. “Exactly what we were afraid of happened last night.”
At the time that he purchased the building, Love represented Treme on the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission. In 2022, the HDLC cited him for demolition by neglect of the Kerlerec Street property. At the time, Love told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate he did not know about the citation and found it “embarrassing,” given his position on the HDLC.
In 2023 the property went into foreclosure. A sheriff’s sale was scheduled. The day after, Love’s term on the HDLC quietly ended. Property records show he still owns the building.
This coming Monday, Hill and other neighbors had a meeting planned with City Councilmember Freddie King. “He’s still going to meet with us and we’re hopefully going to get this mess cleaned up,” said Hill Thursday.
Later that day, King sent out a statement saying “an assessment has confirmed that the structure now poses an imminent danger to the public due to significant structural weaknesses” after the fire. He pledged to expedite demolition of the building.
WWL Louisiana reached out to Ayodele Love and so far have not heard back. The NOFD has not said what may have caused the fire.
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