LOUISVILLE, Ky. — At almost 6 o'clock Tuesday morning, flames licked at the side of Howard Taylor's house.
"It was shooting up from this roof here," he explained, leaning on the chain link fence in his front yard. The porch next door charred, the inside of a neighboring home entirely torched. "Didn't nothing touch our house, I don't believe," Taylor added.
The burnt down home was vacant, Louisville Fire officials said. Fires like those account for 15% across Louisville, Fire Chief Brian O'Neil said, with one in four spreading to nearby homes.
Nobody was injured in the fire, and the owners of the burnt house came to check on it afterwards.
For overgrown grass, the city issued a few hundred dollars in fines on the property, but many more vacant homes rack up tens of thousands of dollars in fines, city officials say.
"The reality is, we're never gonna collect that money. Because these liens are never gonna be paid off. The homes are stuck," Mayor Craig Greenberg said.
Starting December 2nd, the city will take applications for lien forgiveness, lowering the cost for remodels. The pilot program will accept 100 applicants and limit the price a home can be sold for after it is remodeled.
We asked if Howard thought it would lead to higher prices, possibly pricing people out of their neighborhoods.
"No, no," he replied. "I would say that that would be a blessing."
As part of the newly-formed Abandoned Properties Team, the Louisville Fire Department is reporting vacant buildings as a fire prevention strategy during regular inspections.
"So we can get them written up; we can put in a request for an emergency board up," Chief O'Neil said.
Codes and Regulations will handle department requests, which could also include demolition.
"And we gone do this swiftly," Director Richard Price declared.
Also on the team, LMPD is asking people to report any illegal activity, like squatting, in vacant spots.
"So that when we are dealing with people who may be homeless and just need a warm place to stay, we can get those resources to them through our homeless outreach teams. But we also understand that there's criminal activity that can be associated with these properties that we need to address," Police Chief Paul Humphrey said.
Because not everyone will end up as lucky as Taylor who said he's "just thankful."
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