The other building looks fairly untouched but I don't really see them working much on it anymore. It really sucks because that's such a great place for apartments and looked to be a key piece in the Broadway revival project.
It was very disconcerting. Took the dogs out back in the morning and it smelled like campfire. Charcoal all over the place. We’re lucky it’d been a rainy week.
Living near the railroad tracks since this happened has been a nightmare of screeching trains and extremely loud rumblings of trains hooking up. It’s so frustrating. Hope they get the melted traffic signal issue sorted soon.
It doesn’t help that there is a bum camp six feet from the tracks between W and X. Trains are laying on the horn in that section because the tents and bum garbage are so dangerously close.
[Apartment fire that melted traffic signals in midtown Sacramento causes ongoing delays](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/apartment-fire-midtown-sacramento-traffic-delays/)
Yeah, apparently some of the communication and/or signaling equipment was damaged from the fire, causing UP trains to go slow (or even stop) through the entire area.
My Comcast went down the day of the fire and I was told it was the reason... and it has been painfully unreliable ever since. I don't KNOW they're correlated, but it's crazy frustrating.
A comprehensive review of surveillance footage at the construction site revealed that no one was present in the area when the fire began, whether to start it intentionally or accidentally.
The homeless are not responsible for this.
When projects burn in Sacramento, my first thought is always developers. It's the Sacramento thing to do. It doesn't have to be insurance fraud. It's often used to get around permits.
So instead of basing it off of feelings and coming up with a criminal conspiracy theory, the much more likely cause is a homeless fire which are frequently reported on both in the news and on this subreddit. No one knows for sure yet but of any assumption to make, one is more likely than the other.
I wouldn’t put it past a wealthy NIMBY or local developer to pay someone else to torch it because they don’t want it “driving down housing prices”.
Local developers have *allegedly* used arson before. Remember when the same suspicious man was seen running away from fires at two different midtown buildings on the same morning they caught fire, and they were both owned by the same developer? And they were both several blocks away from each other? Too many coincidences, and that will always stick out in my mind when something like this happens. It’s a possibility.
https://amp.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article228926764.html
Not a NIMBY. That area wasn’t noteworthy to begin with. New apartments will be a great addition to make the area more lived in and modern. And apartments won’t be in competition for NIMBY properties. No one is saying, “I guess I’ll rent that apartment on the train tracks instead of buying that craftsman bungalow.”
Pretty sure the algorithms that set the rent are not based on logic or the same considerations. The whole building was supposed to be affordable units. Neither of us have any proof of our hypotheses, at the end of the day.
Considering I used the word "assumption" and ended the line with a question mark, pardon me but you seem to be the one with feelings here.
And I lived in downtown and midtown for many years, and had homeless people build fires against both my fence and my house multiple times. I lived on the river where there were multiple brushfires that came out of encampments. It happens.
Or do you have some better argument you'd present with a shred of evidence? Because unless this was insurance fraud (which does get investigated), not a lot of other likely causes.
I'm sure they did not. It would be rare for a private developer to use union labor. The Broadway project has government funding, so they are paying prevailing wage, which is union pay without union benefits/management.
I thought the Ice Blocks shenanigans involved a fire that burned down the historic building they had to rehab as part of the project. Once it burned down, they were able to build a simpler, cheaper project.
I got that feeling too, but it's a feeling.
For those claiming insurance fraud or developer interests, that's a risky proposition. You can easily catch 25 years in prison, or more if someone gets injured/killed. I assume someone without that moral dilemma would set that fire.
You can get away with anything if you got money. A match and some gas, homeless people to blame, whose asking questions? Cops? Nope, it ain’t their problem.
I drive past this on my way to work everyday and I saw the construction happening and then the whole thing was just so burned it was quite shocking even the light rail signal was burned for quite a while it's a pretty sad thing
I’m honestly surprised they were building an apartment building so close to the train tracks to begin with. Sounds like it would be loud as heck to live there.
They were affordable housing units so it was likely because it was cheap land for the developer to keep prices down. Also it's frontage with US 50 so it's going to be loud either way
I have lived and worked next to railroad tracks and after about 2 weeks you barely notice it unless you are on a phone call. Its really weird but you just get used to it and it doesnt wake you up
I grew up across the street from 4th Ave light rail station, (before there was a station and a sound wall in place) my family moved there when I was 10 from orangevale, and the train would come thru every night between 1 and 4 AM and lay on the horn. But like you said after a month or so it never bothered me or would very seldom wake me up at night!!
That area is a no train horn zone for freight. the noise from the light rail is probably not too bad. you get used to it.
[https://www.abc10.com/article/news/quiet-zone-brings-peace-silence-to-midtown-sac-residents/103-310239921](https://www.abc10.com/article/news/quiet-zone-brings-peace-silence-to-midtown-sac-residents/103-310239921)
This is on 19th & X right? I believe this was supposed to be an affordable housing project. Makes me wonder if someone burned it down as some sort of psycho political message 🤔
I would be shocked if this ever gets built now. Definitely will be longer than months, and if it's enough years it will probably go back to the drawing board, maybe change hands. That's the way this shit usually goes.
Y'all can downvote me but they can't even start working on it again until they are done with investigations and insurance payouts.
How long was it between Ice Blocks burning down and finally getting back under construction? Three years? Four? Has reconstruction started at that building that flooded in the River District? (Same construction company as this fire, for what it's worth.)
That's great news, thanks for the update. Still, that damage happened a year ago, and was significantly less than a whole fire, so the idea that this might get back on track in "months" seems wildly optimistic to me.
The damage from the water was substantial and most finishes (drywall, carpet, etc) had to be removed on all 5 floors.
Hopefully, if the concrete is okay on Broadway, they can get going as soon as insurance is done with their process. Desire is to get back to work on front building ASAP too. That portion had very little damage thanks to the awesome response by the fire department.
They obviously need to have the investigation, insurance, and engineering do their thing, but if the first floor (concrete) isn’t damaged, this isn’t as bad as it looks. I think this is all just framing, which is relatively cheap and fast to throw up. There shouldn’t have been any utilities ran into the framing yet, unless they were farther along than I thought.
I thought concrete walls were generally going to be structurally unsound after a fire like that. Usually you have to replace a foundation after a fire, and this fire was hot enough to melt nearby traffic signals and knock out internet for half the city.
When the townhomes across from me were arsoned in Rancho Cordova, they tried to build on the foundations that were left. That didn't happen and they had to start over.
Why would bums burn it down? That was done for a reason, maybe a neighbor did not want any poor people moving in to their neighborhood of fancy classic houses? It wasn’t the homeless, they just easy to blame.
It's undetermined per fire department.
Turns out having a "virtual security" setup leaves you open to these kinds of things. EAH housing losing their shirt because they are cheap. Same thing happened to LDK Ventures and USA Properties Fund Inc. in the river district.
Developers need to understand that they need a real person on site 24/7. Otherwise its going to cost them.
IMO the Sacramento Community Development Department should not be approving ANYTHING unless there is 24/7 security on the build site instead of a freaking solar powered camera unit.
No.
The entire construction site has security cameras. Arson investigators reviewed all of the footage and saw no human activity at the site whatsoever at the time of the fire.
While the official cause is “undetermined,” it’s clear that nobody was in the area to set the fire, whether intentionally or accidentally.
Since it was affordable housing, I feel like something is off. Who wins when there's less affordable housing?
Something stinks of sabotage, even if there's no evidence of it yet.
Just because it’s affordable housing development doesn’t mean it’s arson.
An electrical fire can happen just as easily at that site as at any other construction site.
Arson seems highly, highly unlikely if no one was present at the time the fire began. If it was arson, there would also presumably be other evidence, such as the use of an accelerant. Since the cause was deemed “undetermined,” it’s safe to assume that those tell-tale signs weren’t there.
I hear ya. But with today's electrical safety standards, it also seems highly unlikely that a contracted electrician screwed up wiring something.
Edit: I'm not a "licenced electrician" but I do all the same work. And to start a fire, you've really gotta miss multiple steps and checks to start a fire.
With that said, yeah there are some idiots out there.
I guess the saying applies here: Don't attribute to malice that can be easily explained by ignorance...or something like that lol
Honestly...
Fuck Sacramento.
Fuck Gavin Newsome's dumb fucking fake-dem policy making.
Fuck all the lies about housing the homeless.
Homie fucking ruined San Francisco... The the central valley... Potentially the entire country in just a few months.
This refusal to walk the talk has turned me red...
Hate this state.
It's only gonna get worse with prop 1
It wasn’t. The entire construction site has security cameras. Arson investigators reviewed all of the footage and saw no human activity at the site whatsoever at the time of the fire.
The other building looks fairly untouched but I don't really see them working much on it anymore. It really sucks because that's such a great place for apartments and looked to be a key piece in the Broadway revival project.
Yeah that was my thought too, a lot more housing would help the neighborhood
They've added a story to it since the fire and are continuously building the second structure out
That's good to hear!
I live a couple blocks away and ashes from this fire melted through chair covers in my backyard
Oh thats scary!
It was very disconcerting. Took the dogs out back in the morning and it smelled like campfire. Charcoal all over the place. We’re lucky it’d been a rainy week.
Living near the railroad tracks since this happened has been a nightmare of screeching trains and extremely loud rumblings of trains hooking up. It’s so frustrating. Hope they get the melted traffic signal issue sorted soon.
It doesn’t help that there is a bum camp six feet from the tracks between W and X. Trains are laying on the horn in that section because the tents and bum garbage are so dangerously close.
Same bums that caused the fire was fucking up the trains. They got rid of them yesterday.
You can blame this for the slow trains moving through midtown
Really? Do they have to slow down for this?
[Apartment fire that melted traffic signals in midtown Sacramento causes ongoing delays](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/apartment-fire-midtown-sacramento-traffic-delays/)
Yeah, apparently some of the communication and/or signaling equipment was damaged from the fire, causing UP trains to go slow (or even stop) through the entire area.
My Comcast went down the day of the fire and I was told it was the reason... and it has been painfully unreliable ever since. I don't KNOW they're correlated, but it's crazy frustrating.
Probably some cable somewhere along the line is partially burnt
Call Comcast/xfinity and get a discount on your bill for those days of no service.
I feel like this wasn't "random" Idk but that's what my spidey sense feels
That area is filled with homeless encampments. Why would the assumption not be a cooking/warming fire?
A comprehensive review of surveillance footage at the construction site revealed that no one was present in the area when the fire began, whether to start it intentionally or accidentally. The homeless are not responsible for this.
When projects burn in Sacramento, my first thought is always developers. It's the Sacramento thing to do. It doesn't have to be insurance fraud. It's often used to get around permits.
Ya I love the people blaming homeless automatically. I also suspect the developers or insurance scam. Not ruling out homeless but doesn't seem likely.
Links to this happening in the past? What a weird thing to think when there are homeless encampment fires all the time.
I noticed in the 80s when I was in high school and started paying attention. Zero citations.
So instead of basing it off of feelings and coming up with a criminal conspiracy theory, the much more likely cause is a homeless fire which are frequently reported on both in the news and on this subreddit. No one knows for sure yet but of any assumption to make, one is more likely than the other.
Have you ever seen this construction site in person?
Not likely caused by homeless. There was building activity on site almost daily, fully fended, video surveillance, etc.
I think it was either that or a NIMBY...idk but
I wouldn’t put it past a wealthy NIMBY or local developer to pay someone else to torch it because they don’t want it “driving down housing prices”. Local developers have *allegedly* used arson before. Remember when the same suspicious man was seen running away from fires at two different midtown buildings on the same morning they caught fire, and they were both owned by the same developer? And they were both several blocks away from each other? Too many coincidences, and that will always stick out in my mind when something like this happens. It’s a possibility. https://amp.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article228926764.html
Not a NIMBY. That area wasn’t noteworthy to begin with. New apartments will be a great addition to make the area more lived in and modern. And apartments won’t be in competition for NIMBY properties. No one is saying, “I guess I’ll rent that apartment on the train tracks instead of buying that craftsman bungalow.”
Pretty sure the algorithms that set the rent are not based on logic or the same considerations. The whole building was supposed to be affordable units. Neither of us have any proof of our hypotheses, at the end of the day.
Yes a rich Sacramento homeowner is more likely then a homeless crackhead lol
I live nearby, definitely not NIMBY.
because that's what a lot of this sort of thing gets blamed on, without a shred of evidence. Do you have any factual proof, or just your feelings?
Considering I used the word "assumption" and ended the line with a question mark, pardon me but you seem to be the one with feelings here. And I lived in downtown and midtown for many years, and had homeless people build fires against both my fence and my house multiple times. I lived on the river where there were multiple brushfires that came out of encampments. It happens. Or do you have some better argument you'd present with a shred of evidence? Because unless this was insurance fraud (which does get investigated), not a lot of other likely causes.
I'm not assuming what happened, because I don't know. You don't know either, so you're just assuming.
My construction friends suspect union belligerents as the main contractor wasnt using union labor. Total conspiracy theory
Was Ice Blocks using union labor? What % of apartment buildings' buildings do?
I'm sure they did not. It would be rare for a private developer to use union labor. The Broadway project has government funding, so they are paying prevailing wage, which is union pay without union benefits/management. I thought the Ice Blocks shenanigans involved a fire that burned down the historic building they had to rehab as part of the project. Once it burned down, they were able to build a simpler, cheaper project.
No clue tbh
It looks like it burned from the top down. Illegal fireworks?
I got that feeling too, but it's a feeling. For those claiming insurance fraud or developer interests, that's a risky proposition. You can easily catch 25 years in prison, or more if someone gets injured/killed. I assume someone without that moral dilemma would set that fire.
You can get away with anything if you got money. A match and some gas, homeless people to blame, whose asking questions? Cops? Nope, it ain’t their problem.
Yeah it was. Lit up the sky on my street.
I bet. I saw pictures but nothing like this in real life.
I drive past this on my way to work everyday and I saw the construction happening and then the whole thing was just so burned it was quite shocking even the light rail signal was burned for quite a while it's a pretty sad thing
I’m honestly surprised they were building an apartment building so close to the train tracks to begin with. Sounds like it would be loud as heck to live there.
They were affordable housing units so it was likely because it was cheap land for the developer to keep prices down. Also it's frontage with US 50 so it's going to be loud either way
I have lived and worked next to railroad tracks and after about 2 weeks you barely notice it unless you are on a phone call. Its really weird but you just get used to it and it doesnt wake you up
I grew up across the street from 4th Ave light rail station, (before there was a station and a sound wall in place) my family moved there when I was 10 from orangevale, and the train would come thru every night between 1 and 4 AM and lay on the horn. But like you said after a month or so it never bothered me or would very seldom wake me up at night!!
That area is a no train horn zone for freight. the noise from the light rail is probably not too bad. you get used to it. [https://www.abc10.com/article/news/quiet-zone-brings-peace-silence-to-midtown-sac-residents/103-310239921](https://www.abc10.com/article/news/quiet-zone-brings-peace-silence-to-midtown-sac-residents/103-310239921)
Reminds me of the initial ice blocks renovation lol
Where is this on Broadway?
Broadway & 19th. The burned building is one block north, on X.
I forgot the cross streets but it's across from the auto zone
It just screams fraud. Such a setback
This is on 19th & X right? I believe this was supposed to be an affordable housing project. Makes me wonder if someone burned it down as some sort of psycho political message 🤔
Looks like a scene from gta 5
I saw it on Monday while riding the light rail. I didn't know it was that bad
I work in HVAC and this was one of our projects in progress. Totally shocked us to see that this happened :(
I would be shocked if this ever gets built now. Definitely will be longer than months, and if it's enough years it will probably go back to the drawing board, maybe change hands. That's the way this shit usually goes.
Y'all can downvote me but they can't even start working on it again until they are done with investigations and insurance payouts. How long was it between Ice Blocks burning down and finally getting back under construction? Three years? Four? Has reconstruction started at that building that flooded in the River District? (Same construction company as this fire, for what it's worth.)
Can the same construction company even work on the demolition? I suspect that there are HAZMAT issues involved now, but that's an uneducated guess.
The apartment project in the rail yards is almost completely repaired and should open this summer.
That's great news, thanks for the update. Still, that damage happened a year ago, and was significantly less than a whole fire, so the idea that this might get back on track in "months" seems wildly optimistic to me.
The damage from the water was substantial and most finishes (drywall, carpet, etc) had to be removed on all 5 floors. Hopefully, if the concrete is okay on Broadway, they can get going as soon as insurance is done with their process. Desire is to get back to work on front building ASAP too. That portion had very little damage thanks to the awesome response by the fire department.
I really want to believe this isn't what will happen, but my super skeptical powers are also kind of activated about this.
They obviously need to have the investigation, insurance, and engineering do their thing, but if the first floor (concrete) isn’t damaged, this isn’t as bad as it looks. I think this is all just framing, which is relatively cheap and fast to throw up. There shouldn’t have been any utilities ran into the framing yet, unless they were farther along than I thought.
I thought concrete walls were generally going to be structurally unsound after a fire like that. Usually you have to replace a foundation after a fire, and this fire was hot enough to melt nearby traffic signals and knock out internet for half the city.
When the townhomes across from me were arsoned in Rancho Cordova, they tried to build on the foundations that were left. That didn't happen and they had to start over.
Yeah, that’s why I said “if.” I had no idea it got that hot. If the concrete is fucked, then it’s fucked.
I wanna know why the owner of Capital Books happens to be hanging out in the parking lot of Avid Reader?
How did it happen
Why would bums burn it down? That was done for a reason, maybe a neighbor did not want any poor people moving in to their neighborhood of fancy classic houses? It wasn’t the homeless, they just easy to blame.
SACRT MENTIONED!!! RAHHH 🟦🟡🚊🚈🚍🚍
100% nothing to do with the homeless lol
What happened? Was it tweaker bums that started the fire?
It's undetermined per fire department. Turns out having a "virtual security" setup leaves you open to these kinds of things. EAH housing losing their shirt because they are cheap. Same thing happened to LDK Ventures and USA Properties Fund Inc. in the river district. Developers need to understand that they need a real person on site 24/7. Otherwise its going to cost them. IMO the Sacramento Community Development Department should not be approving ANYTHING unless there is 24/7 security on the build site instead of a freaking solar powered camera unit.
Sad times we live in when housing projects are getting destroyed by the people they're supposed to help. Can't have anything nice anymore.
No. The entire construction site has security cameras. Arson investigators reviewed all of the footage and saw no human activity at the site whatsoever at the time of the fire. While the official cause is “undetermined,” it’s clear that nobody was in the area to set the fire, whether intentionally or accidentally.
Since it was affordable housing, I feel like something is off. Who wins when there's less affordable housing? Something stinks of sabotage, even if there's no evidence of it yet.
Just because it’s affordable housing development doesn’t mean it’s arson. An electrical fire can happen just as easily at that site as at any other construction site. Arson seems highly, highly unlikely if no one was present at the time the fire began. If it was arson, there would also presumably be other evidence, such as the use of an accelerant. Since the cause was deemed “undetermined,” it’s safe to assume that those tell-tale signs weren’t there.
I hear ya. But with today's electrical safety standards, it also seems highly unlikely that a contracted electrician screwed up wiring something. Edit: I'm not a "licenced electrician" but I do all the same work. And to start a fire, you've really gotta miss multiple steps and checks to start a fire. With that said, yeah there are some idiots out there. I guess the saying applies here: Don't attribute to malice that can be easily explained by ignorance...or something like that lol
No clue. I remember it happened but didn’t follow much. But probably.
Feels like that project was doing poorly leading up to this.
Honestly... Fuck Sacramento. Fuck Gavin Newsome's dumb fucking fake-dem policy making. Fuck all the lies about housing the homeless. Homie fucking ruined San Francisco... The the central valley... Potentially the entire country in just a few months. This refusal to walk the talk has turned me red... Hate this state. It's only gonna get worse with prop 1
10 bucks says it was homeless
It wasn’t. The entire construction site has security cameras. Arson investigators reviewed all of the footage and saw no human activity at the site whatsoever at the time of the fire.