New London ― City officials are compiling a list of fire-damaged residences as part of a renewed effort to spur their owners to clean up the neglected properties, some of which remain unoccupied years later.

Felix Reyes, the city’s director of planning and economic development, said the fire marshal’s office is in the process of identifying every building that’s caught fire in New London going back five years.

“The blight officer will then go to all those properties and check where the owners are with their insurance companies,” Reyes said. “We live in an old city and everyone in every neighborhood has seen a burned-out house where they live. We’re seeing a trend of owners not utilizing insurance pay-outs quickly enough to fix the kind of damage that turns these houses into, not just blighted, but nuisance properties.”

Reyes rattled off a list of residences on Lincoln Avenue, Pleasant Street and in the downtown area with boarded-up windows or fire debris still on the properties.

“The issue is the duration it’s taking some of these owners to deal with these houses,” Reyes said. “We have a housing crisis and not a lot of inventory. So keeping track of these houses ― and where in the process the owners are in fixing them ― is important.”

Acting Fire Marshal David Heiney said his department responds to an average of 30 building fires a year, with several leading to condemnation orders prohibiting resident access for some period of time.

“Some of those buildings do get repaired pretty quickly, but it can depend on where the fire was and the kind of damage, as well as how fast an owner works to repair the issues,” Heiney said.

Heiney said properties left vacant for a long time can attract squatters and become an ongoing fire risk.

“A lot of these damaged buildings don’t have running water and if someone is inside trying to cook or keep warm ― and it’s happened in the city before ― we’re looking at the danger of another fire,” he said.

Blight Inspector Omi Morales said some fire-damaged properties have remained unfixed for months, or, in rare cases, years. He noted one multi-family residence at 212 Montauk Ave., owned by 212 Montauk Holdings LLC, is still boarded up nearly four years after a blaze displaced at least five tenants in February 2021.

“For the most part, owners are very good making sure damaged properties are fixed up after a fire, but we do have a few where renovations haven’t been done even years later,” Morales said.

Once he has the fire marshal’s list of properties, Morales said he expects by December or January to begin assessing the properties and checking in with owners. He said the city’s blight ordinance allows for citations to be issued to those owners not repairing their properties in a timely way.

“Some are still waiting for insurance money to come through, or might be elderly and having difficulty cleaning up themselves,” Morales said. “We looking to make sure we know exactly what fire-damaged properties are in the city right now. That helps us assess the overall condition of the city.”

j.penney@theday.com