Mike Wolanin | The Republic A pedestrian walks past caution tape, barricades and fencing that are blocking off the fire damaged Irwin Block building in Columbus on Dec. 9.
The city of Columbus is seeking to hear property owners’ demolition plans for the fire-torn Irwin Block Building on Fifth Street and is preparing to demolish the structure itself if necessary.
The Columbus Board of Works voted Tuesday to authorize the city to issue a demolition order on the property, which is owned by Jayne Hege and her sisters. The action was recommended by city attorney Alan Whitted in the hopes of hearing specific demolition plans from the owners.
According to Mayor Jim Lienhoop, issuing the order means that the city is allowed to proceed with demolition if the owners don’t take care of it themselves. He added that there are protocols in place in terms of notifying the owners and their opportunity to appeal.
“We would go through all of those processes if we need to,” Lienhoop told The Republic. “We’re hopeful that we don’t have to do any of this, that the owners and their insurance company take care of the property. But we want to be able to move quickly if needed, and so we wanted to go ahead and pursue the demolition order today and get permission from the Board of Public Works to pursue that path if needed.”
It has been a little over two weeks since the Dec. 3 fire that caused significant damage to the Irwin Block Building, with a large portion of the structure’s third story facade collapsing onto the sidewalk and street. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.
The building is believed to be at risk of collapse and Columbus firefighters have said that it will likely need to be demolished.
“I don’t have a written report, but we did get an oral report that I received through Chief (Andy) Lay from the civil engineer saying that … the west half of that property that burned is unsafe and it needs to be brought — some of the property needs to be brought down … so that it’s not a safety hazard to the public in the current situation,” said Whitted.
Lienhoop told the board that it is the city’s desire that the owners and their insurer take care of the demolition on their own.
“We really don’t want to interject the city into this process,” he said, “but they need to keep the line of communication open and let us know what their plan is.”
He told The Republic that there is no set deadline for the family to respond to the order; however, he hopes that the city will have heard from them by next week’s Board of Works meeting. If not, officials will consider “taking another step.”
The Board of Works previously voted on Dec. 7 to condemn the Irwin Block Building as unsafe for human habitation. At the time, code enforcement officer Fred Barnett requested that the family provide written reports to the city each week until the matter is resolved.
George Hege, who spoke to the board at that meeting, indicated that it was his understanding that they couldn’t do much to the building until insurance matters were figured out.
Whitted said that Hege has been directed by the family not to communicate with the city attorney and has since referred him to his insurance adjustor. The adjustor emailed Whitted on Monday and said that they are “moving with all deliberate speed” but could not give him a timeline on the building’s demolition.
Board member John Pickett said that while the board understood that there might be some insurance complications, the building needs to come down “sooner rather than later.”
“I expected us to maybe have a timeline by now, frankly,” he said. “And I realize there’s complications, but insurance companies certainly have dealt with this all over the country before, where buildings have to come down. It’s cutting off a lot of transportation, and it does look dangerous.”
He also noted that the building just east of the site, 440 Fifth Street, cannot be remediated until demolition takes place. Business owners who resided in this property, which is also owned by Jayne Hege and her sisters, have indicated that while it was less severely impacted by the fire, it will still take some months to fix the damage that occurred.
When asked where the family is in the process of setting a plan and timeline for demolition, Jayne Hege told the Republic that they are getting estimates.
“It’s just a slow process, so hopefully we’ll get it all resolved soon,” she said.
