A fire Friday afternoon broke out at the former AGI Rubber factory at Stratford Avenue and Kossuth Street sending plumes of smoke visible from I-95 during rush hour. The Fire Department has responded to several fires there the past few years near the Steel Point redevelopment area on the East Side just beyond Downtown.
“Firefighters continue working hard to put out the blaze,” said Bridgeport Public Safety spokesman Kevin Coughlin. “We encourage folks traveling in the area to steer clear until the fire is out.”
Firefighters initially responded to a small blaze at the old AGI Rubber Factory, but shortly after 2 p.m. reports came in regarding a larger fire at the same site. Seven Bridgeport fire companies were dispatched to the scene.
In May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it was giving the city a $200,000 grant to clean up the run down property at 141 Stratford Avenue.
“We are working with the state through the approval process which can be lengthy and complicated for industrial buildings like this,” said the city’s economic development chief David Kooris in a statement. “And we will work with the Commissioner of Public Health’s office to see if there are ways to expedite the process.”
It would have made more sense to clean up the site years ago, before local vandals started setting fires. Thank you, Bill Finch.
Steve, what a great place for another park!
Maybe we can have it ready for Halloween complete with some chemical reactive mutant monsters.
Quentin, are you really going to join the choir of idiots? Look, Finch is going to be elected Mayor for at least another four years. There are worse insults than being known as a green Mayor. Besides Quentin, for anyone who reads the paper, this property is scheduled for redevelopment, but as David Kooris says, the process is slow and tedious.
The real comments should read, thank G-d nobody was hurt. Thank G-d our Firefighters were on the scene and hopefully all safe. The smoke looks intense and finally, blaming Mayor Finch. Does it really get any more pathetic than that?
The City acquired this property over three years ago by way of a WPCA foreclosure. If this were owned by a private entity they would be subject to blight fines. What’s going to happen when a BFD member gets hurt in that fire trap?
BFD, Finch getting endorsed by the BFD!
Yes, where is the Anti-Blight Program? Are they still meeting at fire HQ? How ironic! If you go past Remington you’ll see it’s wide open!
What used to meet at Fire headquarters was THE BOARD OF CONDEMNATION.
Does everybody remember when Ganim was Mayor? There was no blight. East Main Street and the East End were affluent. The streets were paved with gold. There were no arson fires and shootings. I know Hector Diaz remembers the great times under Ganim. Mary-Jane Foster supporters will remind us we deserve better and Ron Mackey and Bridgeport Kid may as well say Finch lit the fire. Me, I am grateful nobody was hurt. At least I hope nobody was hurt.
Once again, Mayor Finch has done nothing wrong but it’s MJF’s fault, right Steve?
It was absolutely not Mary-Jane Foster’s fault. Ron, you are a riot. Mayor Finch had nothing to do with the fire. I said you’d remind us we deserve better and I was just daydreaming about how wonderful life was under the Ganim administration. Huge development projects, everyone was working on these huge projects, clean streets, weekly pig roasts. Excellent schools lolololololololol, sorry, I got carried away.
Maybe we’ll have a third train station!
Steve, I remember jersey barriers and the Latin Kings!
That was Ganim’s.
Tremendous spike in fire department expenditures for all these fires. Puts human lives at risk, pollutes the air, wastes our riverfront, embarrasses the city. Time for a new mayor. Go Ganim!
Fires under Ganim, there were way more.
Steve,
We don’t have to remember “when Ganim was mayor.” We know what’s happening while Tax Bill is our mayor. If David Kooris and the rest of the hee-haw gang had their collective act together the property would be halfway to development by now. The EPA grant money would be in hand and the site would be cleaned up. But that didn’t happen because the Finch administration is basically a Chowder Society, a group of old drones who sit around congratulating themselves on being masters of the universe. If any one of them knew how to navigate federal bureaucracy the AGI property would not still be there. Vandals set fire to it just for kicks. Why? Because there are no summer jobs for youth. The failing school system also is a contributing factor: they were unable to learn any better.
Is that why the fire was set days before the primary election?
Bridgeport Kid, first we know the wheels of government move at a snail’s pace. We know it has priority as it is a gateway to Steelpointe. I do not know when these guys have time to slap themselves on the back.
We definitely need to compare and contrast the Ganim days and the Finch days.
For the record and most important, Bill Finch has put 700-plus students to work this summer in many programs. It was highly publicized and I am certain the youth and their families were grateful.
BFD.
It is well past time to stop blaming Joe Ganim for everything that is wrong here in Bridgeport. His actions are only one factor contributing to the city’s problems.
The idea of Joe Ganim returning to the mayor’s office is as reprehensible to me as it is to you and many many others. Another four years of Bill Finch is equally reprehensible. Neither of them has interests of the people of the city of Bridgeport as the number one priority. Both of them are aligned with the Democratic Town Committee as chaired by Mario Testa. The city has been lumbered with his self-interest long enough. It is time for a change.
The primary is not going to decide the mayoral race this time. In the past that has been true but not this year; there are too many names on the general ballot.
The development projects will continue no matter who assumes the mayoralty. It’s all fabulous, a sporting-goods outlet and a coffee shop and a motel going up at Steel Point. What the next mayor must deal with is the bloat and dysfunction and inefficacy of Bridgeport’s city agencies; an underperforming school system; and an unfair and predatory system of taxation and collection.
All of the meager revenues the city will realize from Steel Point will not be worth the paper the money is printed on unless is is spent cost-effectively.
This is the sound of one hand clapping.
Firefighters lives are at risk fighting these types of fires because there is nothing to save. Mayor Finch’s lack of action in not taking down buildings like this in Bridgeport. Firefighters go in and save buildings like this for what, so they can come back again and again with a chance to get hurt or killed.
See, no one on this blog is looking for a candidate. Everyone here is already cemented in their opinion. The way I see it, we have three choices.
Finch has done a lot for the city. He has cleaned up quite a few spots already. Making them parks for right now but at least they are cleaned up and ready for development. Whenever that may happen. He has new developments and has started to move the city forward in difficult economic times.
Ganim also did a lot for the city. Most of which is humiliating and shameful.
Foster took a multi-million dollar stadium, put a ball team in it and ran it into bankruptcy. Luckily, Finch was there to save it.
I am just concentrating on some of the things each candidate did do as opposed to the millions of things they have not. This fire is an example of one of many areas Finch did not clean up and turn into a development or park. But with limited funds and time he could hardly clean every derelict factory in town. This site is already scheduled for development. Why would the city clean it up? Someone else is going to do it for BPT.
Many of these abandoned factories have been transferred to bankrupt shell companies leaving no way to recoup monies associated with their clean up. Other sites have been reduced to empty lots in order to minimize the tax impact on the corporate owner. Others are simply not paying taxes in hopes the city WILL seize the property, relieving the company of the tax burden and the cleanup costs. Some have been remediated by the city or parent company. Perhaps it would be useful to compare/contrast the areas each candidate has cleaned up. It is just coincidentally bad luck this fire happened to coincide with the primary election, wink, wink. Strange the way that happens.
BOE SPY, again you are passing on false information. The Bluefish were not bankrupt when they were sold by MJF and her husband, and if you think this fire was set because of the primary and to make Finch look bad, you need help.
Very real possibility the second fire was the result of hidden embers not extinguished at the first fire. It’s called rekindle.
So the BPFD is incompetent and did not set a proper fire watch. Is that your theory?
Listen you fucking idiot, the BFD is not incompetent. I would explain to you why a rekindle happens but you would not understand. The FD is good at what they do. Call them and they come right away.
I think the fire department and the police department in the city of Bridgeport do an amazing job. They put their lives on the line daily and I totally respect them and I am grateful for their selfless actions.
Does a rekindle happen because they did not take the time to put enough water on it? Sure they come right away. But what good does it do if they do not put out the fire?
BTW asshole, I don’t have theories. I AM A qualified expert in fire investigation.
Too bad you were not at the factory. You could have investigated and said ‘Hey guys! This fire is not out.’ If their job is to put fires out, not mostly out, not partially out but all the way out, they did not do their job. Were you the only expert the BPFD had who could tell if a fire were out?
You know, if you had a brain you would have two things to play with. You have to be nuts to ask and make the dumbass statements you make. You don’t know squat about the FD. I don’t blame you for using a fake name, with your dumb post you don’t want people to know who you are.
Andy, this asshole must be a top person in Finch’s administration like Adam Wood because they crawl out from under a dead tree when Finch is under attack by facts, that’s why they are scared to give their name but they have more details about City business than anybody else.
Crickets.
There is a problem with abandoned buildings that has gone on since the early ’70s and the problem is all the mayors did not want to deal with these buildings. We have plenty of our people injured at these fires but the powers that be then and now did not care. Back then the city had the equipment and manpower to deal with these buildings but chose not to. Today Finch and Company are knocking down buildings but a building that has had multiple fires should have been torn down. Don’t blame the state, which you are now attempting to do.
Ron, you are correct about these types of fires. The unknown is very dangerous; solvent-soaked floors, oils in old machinery, residue in chemical drums, corrugated boxes, on and on. Last year’s fire on Seaview Ave is a perfect example.
Question; is the Fire Department involved in any inspections prior or immediately after a company vacates a building?
QD, as a retired captain of the BFD I can assure you they do inspections as well as pre-fire planning. Contrary to what one asshole said, the BFD is anything but incompetent and in fact one of the best in the State.
Are those inspections done when the fire officials are not at Mohegan Sun in their city trucks? Or did all those guys get fired?
DD, good job. Thank you for your service.
I’m a certified DOT hazardous material shipper as well as OSHA certified for my company and have some understanding of the dangers involved. There are so many hidden dangers in fighting these types of fires.
The citizens of Bpt are very lucky to have the best and bravest FD in the state. Their response time is second to none. The nature of the types of fire these men and women have to fight is much more difficult and dangerous than most other depts.
If the current occupant of the mayor’s office had made the environment and cleaning up the brownfields a priority, the fires in those old factory buildings would not still be occurring.
Bill Finch claims to be the “green” mayor but that’s just hot gas. Solar panels just lower the electric bill.