A 121-year-old tenement in Duranguito owned by Don Luciano caught fire this afternoon, but it was put out quickly by the fire department. Built in 1900, it is located at 217-219 W. Overland Avenue.
Aaron Montes of KTSM 9 News was the first to publish a descriptive report.
Luciano made the news when he evicted the building’s tenants around Christmas 2016 and then allowed the property to languish, failing to secure it multiple times.
Embarrassingly, he served for years on the Historic Landmark Commission, which is charged with enforcing historic building codes and maintaining the integrity of historic buildings.
In February 2017, Luciano was ordered to fix his building or go to jail, and in August of that year he told the El Paso Times that he planned to renovate the building.
Then on January 13, 2020 he applied for a demo permit to raze the entire complex, but he didn’t do it.
Maybe it’s cheaper to let the vagrants burn it down?
Of course, the City has failed again and again to enforce the building codes that are supposed to prevent such fires, and the City was repeatedly warned about the vagrants that have been entering this property.
But the tenement lies within the City’s “Arena Master Plan” area, so why should the City enforce codes that would protect this historical asset?
Does it matter that the property was determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places by the County’s recent architectural survey?
Hell no.
Only in El Paso…
Max
https://www.ktsm.com/local/fire-breaks-out-in-vacant-duranguito-tenement/