It's been five months since a three-alarm fire gutted the Savour Wine and Cheese shop and heavily scarred the house at 3 Mansfield St.
Now, the former site of the shop, which also included upstairs apartments, remains a gaping hole at the intersection of Washington and Mansfield streets, and city Building Inspector Bill Sanborn says the adjacent house has been deemed uninhabitable.
Yet there are no hard-and-fast plans to do anything with either site.
The buildings caught fire the night of Sept. 15 and firefighters from Gloucester and surrounding towns battled the blaze into the next morning. The Savour building was torn down the following day, and the house on Mansfield Street lost much of its third floor.
Sanborn said Wednesday that those lots could stay the way they are for a while, as the owners work out issues with their insurers.
Resolving such claim could take up to nine months after the incident, he said, adding that he hasn't seen any plans for the properties come forward, and doesn't expect them any time soon.
"Nothing happens in the meantime," he said.
Ward 3 Councilor Steve LeBlanc said he's looking to have something done with both properties. The remnants of a fire, he said, are an eyesore.
"This is on my agenda, to get something done with it or get it taken down," he said.
A misplaced cigarette in one of the Savour building apartments was blamed for starting the fire, which left five families homeless. The owners of Savour are working to open a new shop at 76 Prospect St.
The building at Washington and Mansfield was demolished after Sanborn found the storefront wasn't structurally sound and had to come down quickly. Demolition came with a $35,000 price tag for Jim Santo, who owns Jim's Bagels and Bake Shoppe and who owned the building which once housed his bakery.
Santo, who did not return calls for comment yesterday, has said he wants to build something on the site. Yet he hadn't come forward with any plans as of Thursday, said Sanborn.
Sally Caron owns 3 Mansfield St., according to Nancy Papows, the city's principal assessor. Caron could not be reached for comment, as both her mailing address and phone number are tied to 3 Mansfield St.
Caron's three-family home sustained heavy damage in the fire which was mostly confined to the third floor and rendered the house uninhabitable.
Though no one can live in it, said Sanborn, the house is still structurally solid.
"It can't be occupied due to the damage," he said, "but it's not unsafe enough for us to tear down,"
Caron, said Sanborn, hasn't approached the city with plans to repair or rebuild the property as of Thursday, leaving the building boarded and looking abandoned, with a blue tarp over one side of the roof.
Sanborn said he has not had a lot of calls from neighbors about the building.
He said the neighborhood and the owner are paying close attention to anything that happens to the property. But he added that the site has not become a concern like other abandoned or vacant buildings across the city.
Steven Fletcher may be contacted at 1-978-283-7000 x3455, or sfletcher@gloucestertimes.com. Follow him on Twitter at @stevengdt.
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