Camden and its residents survey fires' wake, assess their next moves

Amid the vast field of rubble on Orchard Street in the heart of Camden, Elmer Walker walks into what used to be his backyard.

A small, charred grill is the only thing standing after a fire in an old tire warehouse swept through his neighborhood June 9.

As Walker looks around the piles of brick, a police officer jumps out of her parked cruiser, yelling: "What do you think you are doing? Get your butt out of there!"

Orchard Street is now a crime scene, and not even residents are allowed on their property until the fire marshal's investigation is complete.

The devastation and frustration in Walker's Gateway neighborhood are matched in two other sections of Camden also ravaged by spectacular fires this month. On June 11, a fire in a former garment factory spread to homes in Waterfront South, and last Sunday, a blaze at a former detergent factory ripped through East Camden. Arson has been identified as the cause of the Sunday blaze and is suspected in the other two fires.

For a city already dealing with poverty and blight, the fires have brought devastating new burdens, both emotional and financial. Twenty-three houses were destroyed or damaged. Ten of them were occupied.

Four city blocks are charred, with at least $1.8 million in damage. Dozens of fire victims are looking for temporary housing. Many homeowners lack insurance to rebuild, and the city has no money to demolish burned-out buildings.

The removal of debris must await completion of the investigation, which fire officials said could take months. Then, who pays for the cleanup costs in a city where government and residents are broke?

Each owner is legally responsible for property cleanup, which can cost more than $10,000 - half the value of many residents' homes.

If the owner disappears, leaving behind debris and unpaid taxes, the city can place a lien on the property, said Bill Quinn, a spokesman for the state Treasury Department. But that's not much of a threat in a city where more than 4,000 abandoned properties already have municipal liens, including some properties that are charred piles from fires years ago.

The city is taking over the effort to collect on those liens from a tax-collection firm, Xspand, previously owned by former Gov. Jim Florio. Xspand's five-year contract with the city will expire Thursday.

The city also recently started using the state Abandoned Properties Rehabilitation Act, which gives it power to hold special tax sales, accelerate foreclosure on tax liens, and use eminent domain to turn over properties to new owners who will rehabilitate them.

But it is unclear if the city intends to use the law on damaged and abandoned properties that are left near the Orchard Street fire scene or if it plans to use any previous demolition grants to clean up the site.

The city received $1.8 million from the state Department of Community Affairs in 2008 to demolish about 96 properties by the end of this year. It recently applied for a $2 million loan from the DCA to demolish 115 other properties.

City officials refused to discuss their plans and referred all questions to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, where spokesman Jason Laughlin said, "We don't have those answers."

It costs the city $13,000 to $23,000 to demolish and clean up a house, according to recent city demolition contracts.

Residents whose fire-damaged houses are still standing must make the tough decision whether to fix their homes or move.

"We haven't decided what to do," said Sandra Arroyo, whose Chestnut Street rowhouse lost its roof and suffered water damage to its second floor in the June 9 fire.

Arroyo, a Spanish teacher in Oaklyn and the mother of 3-year-old triplets, and her husband, Justo, have been taking turns going to the house to clean up the debris and salvage what they can.

"My father bought me this house for my wedding present. I'm attached to the house," she said.

But Arroyo said she feared the wall of the burned-out warehouse next door might fall on her house, which she has owned for 13 years.

"I'm not feeling safe here," she said. "I'm not bringing my kids in." She and her family are staying in Pennsauken with her mother.

Thomas Inge, who lives next door to the Arroyos, said his insurance had lapsed, so he must pay to repair his house, which sustained extensive water and smoke damage.

"The firefighters went through my front door and upstairs to fight the fire," said Inge, a resident since 1998. "They made a big mess, tore the ceiling up."

Inge is saving his receipts, hoping someone will be held accountable for the fires and he can be reimbursed for the cost of fixing his house.

"I've got to worry about eminent domain," he said. The city "might come and say, 'Oh, well, you have so much damage. Here's what we'll give you.' "

What happens to the giant mess left by the old warehouses and factories?

City officials are still trying to determine who some of the owners are.

Chestnut Realty Association appears as the owner of the Orchard and Chestnut Street tire warehouse on tax records. But city officials say the Cherry Hill company appears to be defunct. The property has a $332,000 tax lien that has accumulated since 2001.

Shyang J. Lin, whose business, E-Zone Management, has owned the large garment factory space at Winslow and Jefferson in Waterfront South since the early 1990s, said: "Ten years ago, I saw a bright future for Camden, like Brooklyn. That's why I moved in here." But over the years he has been faced with transient tenants and in recent years with vandalism and theft.

Lin said he did not know what would happen with what was left of the old factory, which he had recently used for his North Camden electronics recycling company. He said he was underinsured and waiting for law enforcement agencies to finish their investigation of the property to assess his next move.

The Concord Chemical Co. building at 17th and Federal Streets, which was torched last Sunday, operated until a few years ago. Multiple owners are listed under the company name, and investigators are having difficulty tracking down the owner.

Probably the last time Camden was so devastated by fire was 1972, when North Camden suffered the so-called Poet's Row Fire, said Phil Cohen, who has a local history website, DVRBS.com.

On a hot summer night, a fire started in the former John R. Evans Co. leather factory at Second and Erie Streets. As in this month's Chestnut Street fire, the blaze jumped quickly to rowhouses.

Forty-two houses and the factory collapsed, and 30 houses were severely damaged.

"It was a year or two after the riots, so no one was rebuilding anything in North Camden," Cohen said, referring to racial unrest in 1971 that caused millions of dollars of damage to homes and businesses and accelerated Camden's postwar decline.

He said he expected similar neglect in the Gateway neighborhood, where Elmer Walker's home is now just a pile of bricks.

"Only two houses have been built there in the last 40 years," Cohen said.