More than two months after a home on Palmetto Avenue in Sanford burned to the ground, the charred leftovers remain.
“This is a nice neighborhood, and that one particular house is pulling everything down," said Leonard Surdin, whose property sits next to the burned home. "It has to be pulling property values down. In my backyard it still stinks like a fire.”
Steven Angle remains a person of interest in the fires, but has not been charged in them. He remains in the Seminole County jail on no bond on unrelated charges. While the state fire marshal continues to investigate, it’s up to the individual property owners to either board up or tear down their burned homes, depending on how bad they were burned.
City officials said they are working as fast as they can to force property owners to clean up the burned out homes.
“There are private property rights that have to be considered any time the government is going to go on private property and do something,” said Darrel Presley, the City of Sanford’s Director of Community Improvement.
City officials have served the property owner at 819 Palmetto Avenue a Notice of Hearing letter, asking that owner to come to a hearing in early September to answer to possible code violations. If those violations are found to exist, the owner will be fined $500 a day until the burned remains of the structure are cleaned up.
The city has condemned a property at 1800 Palmetto Avenue, and has notified its owner it will soon demolish it. City officials said property owners at homes that were not as severely damaged have been responsive. They have boarded up windows and doors that were knocked down while firefighters were putting out the fires.
“In the vast majority of cases, the property owners are doing what’s required,” Presley.
But some neighbors say it’s not happening quick enough.
“I wish the city could just take that property over through imminent domain and just clean it up. But I gather they can’t,” said Surdin.