People in Desert Hot Springs want burned buildings torn down
Fires continues to plague the city of Desert Hot Springs.
Now, a burning question, ‘what happens after firefighters put out the flames?’
City officials said it’s a process that involves a lot of people and a lot of time.
But those who live nearby said they’re concerned.
“If they’re not going to be occupied then yea don’t give them a reason to break in and then something like this happen,” said Luis Juarez who lives in Desert Hot Springs.
With at least 10 fires in last the last month, they said they want action.
“They need to start repairing things, knocking things down and making it look nice and clean,” said Amalia Mendoza.
Once the flames go out, the problems don’t end there.
“I think it looks ugly for the place where we live. And we live downtown and downtown should be looking great,” Mendoza said.
But, when we asked the city we found out tearing down these buildings isn’t as simple as you might think.
“It is a long, complicated legal process,” said Police Chief Dale Mondary.
The police department, city and fire department know there’s a problem, but they can’t simply tear buildings down.
“Someone owns that property or a family or it could be the insurance company. And so we have to deal with those individuals give them the opportunity to repair it. And so we send notice to them,” Mondary said.
If they don’t respond, then it goes to court.
Chief Mondary said despite that, they’re making progress.
“There’s at least two that have been abated and the city will be tearing them down. And there’s a number of businesses that are going through that. But it’s a lengthy process due to the property owners right to due process,” Mondary said.
Mondary agrees with many people in Desert Hot Springs, especially when it comes to the building at the corner of Hacienda and Palm Drive.
“As we get visitors we don’t want that to be the first thing that they see,” Mondary said.
The old revivals building burned in March and the chief said they’re working on it.
