NEW BERLIN _ State police in Norwich are investigating a fire that gutted an abandoned house at 24 Academy St. in the village of New Berlin on Sunday.
``This fire definitely is suspicious,'' Investigator Jason Bessett said Thursday. ``There was no power on, and there were no thunderstorms in the area.''
According to Lee Foster of 22 Academy St., the fire apparently kindled at about noon and she noticed it just after 1 p.m.
``I heard someone yell `fire,' and when I looked the whole thing was engulfed,'' she said.
Foster's grandchildren were staying with her. She first got them away from the house, then called 911, she said.
``Our house was getting hotter and hotter, and my husband, David, took the garden house and started spraying it down," she said. "We were afraid it might catch, too.''
However, the New Berlin Fire Department confined the blaze to the unoccupied dwelling, which had been heavily damaged by fire about five years ago.
``I'm glad they saved our house, but I can't understand why the village doesn't take that thing down,'' said Foster, pointing to the charred shell next door.
Foster said she has called Mayor Carol Riley and county officials repeatedly, asking for action.
``I have to believe that if that house was on Main Street where everyone could see it, instead of tucked in here, it would have come down years ago,'' she said.
Riley said the village does not have the authority to remove the eyesore.
``I'd love to do it, but that's the county's responsibility, and the county's not doing a very good job,'' said the mayor.
The house, which borders Paper Mill Creek in the village, was nearly destroyed in a fire about fire years ago and has been boarded up ever since.
According to the county's Real Property Tax Office, the house has changed hands many times in recent years and currently is owned by James McCann of Mahwah, N.J., who purchased it Feb. 28.
McCann could not be reached for comment Friday.
Bruce Bates, Chenango County's code enforcement officer, said he does not have the authority to order the house to be removed, but he has ordered the owner to board it up again.
``I have to operate by county law number two of 1998, which doesn't allow me to tell an owner to take a building down,'' he said.
Riley noted the county also is allowing a three-story brick building at the corner of Main and Genesee streets to remain standing, although it was condemned in January.
``We've been going back and forth on that one for six months and I'm disgusted,'' she said. ``If county law doesn't allow the Code Enforcement Office to take care of these situations, the law should be changed.''
Aubrey Lamphere, who lives on the other side of 24 Academy St., said he has seen rats coming out of the burned structure.
``The reason they won't touch that house is because they're afraid the shingles are made of asbestos and it would cost a lot to get rid of them,'' he said, noting that the exterior siding did not burn in either blaze.
Bessett said that anyone with information about Sunday's fire should call state police at 334-3296.
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