Two Buildings at Olympia Place Deemed Total Loss Following Weekend Fire
A fire at Olympia Place apartments on November 7 left two buildings in the complex a total loss. Photo: amherstma.gov
Source: Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren and amherstma.gov
A massive fire at the Olympia Place apartment complex in Amherst that started on Friday night, November 7, was reported by Fire Chief Lindsay Stromgren to finally be under control at 7:30 p.m on Satruday, though some parts of the buildings at #47 and #57 Olympia Drive still continued to burn. Stromgren reported on Saturday evening that due to the building being unstable, fire crews are not able to enter the building, and continued to work to extinguish the fire from the exterior. Demolition crews were on site, tearing down the building so that fire crews could reach the areas that were still burning.
The state task force and other mutual aid units were released at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. As of Saturday evening, Amherst Fire crews were still on scene, assisted by a ladder truck from Greenfield. The building demolition and fire extinguishment is expected to be completed by sometime Sunday morning. Amherst Fire crews will remain on site until the scene is secured with a fence by the property owners.
The fire is under investigation by investigators from the State Fire Marshall’s office, the Amherst Fire Department, and the Amherst Police Department. At this time, the fire is not considered suspicious in nature. The initial fire involved the building under construction at #47 Olympia Drive, which then spread due to its intensity and the wind to the nearby building at #57 Olympia Drive. The building at #47 collapsed during the fire. Both buildings are a total loss. There is no current estimate for the dollar value of the loss. There were no injuries.
The fire was originally reported at 8:19 p.m. on Friday evening by callers to 911 reporting that the building under construction was on fire. First arriving units found the building that was under construction fully involved in fire, with fire spreading to the nearby buildings. During the fire there were multiple explosions, likely from fuel tanks on the construction site, and there was one construction crane that collapsed.
A second and third alarm were sounded for mutual aid. Multiple towns from Hampshire, Hamden, and Franklin County responded. Tanker trucks were also requested from numerous communities to help boost the water supply.
Preliminary estimates are that 230 people will be displaced from the complex. The Red Cross is assisting those who have been displaced to find temporary housing. UMass Amherst released a statement on Saturday, saying in part, “Olympia Place residents have immediate access to all dining commons at no cost, and an on-campus emergency resource center will be open to centralize student needs.”
Read More
UMass Students React to Olympia Place Fire (Western Mass News)
Olympia Place Demolished After Devastating Fire (Massachusetts Daily Collegian)
UMass Students Scramble for Housing After Amherst Complex Destroyed by Fire (MassLive)
The Aftermath of the Olympia Fire: Community Rallies in Support of Victims (Massachusetts Daily Collegian)
“Tanker trucks were also requested from numerous communities to help boost the water supply. “
This is Amherst, not Leyden or Shutesbury which neither have hydrants nor allow developments like this.
Who allowed those buildings to be built up there without a sufficient water supply?!?
If nothing else, you tell the developer to have a standpipe up there — just like the Walmart in Ware does.
Who allowed those buildings to be built so close together?!? If there is space between buildings, you can put water in there and stop the fire. Particularly when the wind is blowing…
Who allowed such flammable materials to be used?!? 19th Century codes called for brick walls and slate roofs TO PREVENT THE SPREAD OF FIRE — why not now?!?
This is the second serious fire up there in 3 months — what are those buildings built out of? Sterno???
Those of you who live in Amherst, get ready for a SIGNIFICANT increase in your fire insurance rates.
And would this have been allowed if it UM students hadn’t been living there?
My sympathy goes out to Archipelago for whom the fire must be a devastating loss, and I don’t want to draw hasty conclusions, but minutes show that in October 2013 Olympia Place was granted five special permits by the Planning Board. The project was allowed to exceed zoning requirements for front yard setback, maximum building coverage, maximum lot coverage, maximum floors and maximum height.
See https://www.amherstmarec.org/Archive/ViewFile/Item/6104.
And I also remember that some time previous to that project being greenlighted, the Planning Board convinced Town Meeting to rezone that area from being exclusively for fraternities and sororities to one that could also have just such buildings. Town Meeting was told that there were no projects on the horizon, and that the rezoning was just to open up possibilities. And then, lo and behold, soon after along comes Archipelago. I believe that I was able to document that they had registered an LLC with the Secretary of the Commonwealth right before this article was passed by Town Meeting. The member of the Planning Board who presented the article to Town Meeting was not happy that he had essentially been duped into asserting what was clearly not the truth.
Lessons learned?
Many lessons :
1 – Density without the infrastructure to protect the occupants, is catastrophic.
2- Umass should build their own dorms , they will be safer .
3- A moratorium is needed to examine the safety of our current projects, and reevaluate our priorities .
To name just a few …
We had a building moratorium in 1986 that resulted in a phased growth bylaw. In 1993 Town Meeting produced a document on the cost of housing. This report needs significant up-dating.