By Holly Toal<br><a href="mailto:holly.toal@journal-register.com">E-mail Holly</a>
ALBION — An Albion home that caught fire early Monday morning was vacant during the time of the blaze; but whether that was good or bad is up for debate.
According to Amy Rosier of Holley, her brother, W. Scott Rosier, 64, was kicked out of his home on the corner of Platt Street and Park Avenue by Code Enforcement Officer Ronald Vendetti about four months ago.
“If he had been living in the house, at the very least, the fire wouldn’t have destroyed the house,” she said.
Vendetti, on the other hand, is thankful no one was in the house at the time of the fire.
“I think I was probably right — when I detect that a house is not safe, and it burns down ... ” he said of his determination that the house was unlivable. “Thanks to me, her brother didn’t get killed.”
Vendetti said the cause of the blaze is hard to determine because the building was so unstable.
Rosier said attention was initially drawn to the house because there was too much stuff in the yard and in the house, because the occupants had been “hoarding” things. She also said the front porch had electrical wires hanging down, and a few other things inside the building were not up to code.
A few months ago, Community Action of Orleans and Genesee County offered to help the family repair some of the house, but never got a chance to because Vendetti found “an extravagant amount” of things that needed to be fixed, which exceeded what Community Action could contribute, according to Rosier.
Vendetti agreed that Community Action attempted to assist with repairs to the house, but that the scope of the repairs was beyond what they could help with. He also said the porch was “totally unstable.”
“We worked so hard cleaning out the house,” Rosier said. She added that Vendetti was being “nit-picky” about what needed to be fixed. Now, her brother lives in a second-floor apartment, which Rosier says is difficult because he was diagnosed with lung cancer and is in a wheelchair. He also has an oxygen tank and has a limited life expectancy, she said.
Rosier’s wish was that her brother, a Vietnam veteran, could spend his last holiday season in his home, which he has lived in for about seven years.
Vendetti, however, said he was just doing his job.
“Here’s a case where you have violations that go uncorrected, the house burns down, and they still don’t understand,” he said.
Firefighters were called to the fire at about 3:30 a.m. Monday. At the scene were crews from the Albion, Barre, Clarendon, Carlton, Holley, Shelby and Medina fire departments.
Contact editor Holly Toal at 798-1400, ext. 8225.
