Homeless Camp Fire Reported At NH DOT Building In Concord: Watch

CONCORD, NH — Concord fire and rescue teams were called to the shed at the New Hampshire Department of Transportation property on Stickney Avenue for a building fire on Sunday.

Just after 2:15 p.m., dispatch reported people seeing smoke in the area and New Hampshire State Police troopers arriving first to the property. Troopers advised fire dispatch to approach the building from the Storrs Street side, which they did. Concord police also arrived to assist.

The outside of the building, on the Loudon Road side, caught on fire due to homeless campers who often congregate on that side of the building. There have been fires there in the past.

When firefighters arrived, most of the fire was extinguished by the troopers. They continued to douse the area and then, checked the building to see if the fire had spread inside. When firefighters got inside, they told dispatch the state needed to be notified that it was "unsecure" and there were several homeless people camping inside the building.

Firefighters cleared around 2:45 p.m.

NEWS 603 posted video on YouTube.com.

The transportation property has been abandoned for many years and was put up for sale by the state in October 2020.

The property and other parcels along Stickney Avenue were once part of the city's vision for an "opportunity corridor" of development including a new hotel and convention center. That was put on hold first, due to the lack of need for a new convention center, since the city already had the Grappone Conference Center, and later, due to unknown plans for commuter rail — which might need some of the areas for expanded rail and a train station. Interstate 93 expansion may affect any redevelopment in the area. The coronavirus pandemic has also put a lot of property investment, sales, and development on hold due to the collapse of most of the economy as well as a lack of expansion of service and retail sectors.

Operation Santa Claus often used the building as a drop-off location for the holiday charity effort by state employees. The building was burglarized in 2015 with thousands of dollars in gifts stolen. This year, the event was held mostly remotely, with gift cards purchased for thousands of children instead of gifts.

The property has been plagued with problems including homeless campers, graffiti, trespassers, and a previous arson case.

Five years and eight days ago, the shed was set on fire. Steven Rowell of Danbury, who had a slew of arrests prior and after this incident, was charged on two counts of arson. Rowell, who was nicknamed "the teardrop tattooed teen," due to tattoos of teardrops on his face, was indicted on the arson charges later, it was dropped along with burglary, false report to law enforcement, and attempted false fire alarms charges because of his inability to stand trial due to lack of competency.

According to sources, after the state put the building up for sale, and had dozens of developers look at it, only a single bid was received for the property — a developer that was interested in building more Section 8 housing, something many in Concord believe the city has enough of, even if there is a need for more housing units that are accessible either by ownership or leasing to all income brackets and wage earners. The focus of community development has been on market-rate housing downtown — in order to ensure a vibrant downtown and "creative economy" (arts, restaurants, etc.).

The city, which has the right of first refusal on the property, took advantage of that right and is formulating plans on how to produce maximum tax base expansion for the parcel.

Around 8 p.m. on Friday, Concord police and firefighters were sent to Storrs Street in the area of the Legislative Parking Garage, not far from the shed, for a report of someone attempting to set cars on fire in the parking lot. Later, a woman was taken into custody, reportedly having a psychotic episode, according to scanner chatter.

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