Fire crews extinguish blaze at former Norwich Hospital property
Norwich — Crews on Wednesday morning battled a blaze on the former Norwich Hospital property off Laurel Hill Road.
The call for the fire came in about 9 a.m. On arrival, firefighters found a 2½-story structure with heavy fire coming from the second floor.
Smoke from the blaze could be seen from miles away.
According to Battalion Chief Keith Wucik, the roof of the vacant building quickly collapsed. He said it took firefighters 20 to 30 minutes to knock down the bulk of the flames.
The building sits back from the road, off a private drive called Perimeter Loop. Records list the property as being part of 705 Laurel Hill Road. The area is overgrown with foliage, but none of it caught fire Wednesday.
Wucik said the location made things difficult for firefighters.
“The hydrant is 1,000 feet away, so they had to lay 1,000 feet of hose,” he explained.
Because the water supply line was stretched from Laurel Hill Road, or state Route 12, one lane of the road was closed. Fire police were on scene directing alternating traffic.
Wucik said an excavator was slated to knock down the rest of the building.
Thames River Landing LLC owns the property. Its lead developer, Mark Fields, has said he wants to create a luxury apartment complex and explore other hospitality projects on the land.
The city last month said Thames River owes more than $81,000 in back property taxes dating to July 2016. Fields on Wednesday reiterated that he intends to pay the taxes and move forward with his plans, which he said will focus more so on the acreage that sits east of Route 12.
Fields, who was on scene Wednesday, said he discovered there are “extensive” tracks, likely made by four-wheelers, extending from Preston onto his nearly 50-acre property. Over the winter, he added, people trespassed and stole “hundreds of thousands of dollars'” worth of copper from the decaying buildings scattered across the land.
For Fields, the fire was just another frustrating setback.[naviga:img hspace="5" vspace="5" border="0" height="225" width="400" align="right" alt="Norwich Hospital property fire, October 4, 2017" src="http://projects.theday.com/maps/norwich-prop-fire-100417-02.png"/]
“The state had security on this property for years and it never stopped anything,” he said. “If people want to trespass, they’re going to do it no matter what, especially when it’s large, expansive land like this and there are so many ways to get onto it.”
It was not yet clear whether the fire is being considered suspicious. No further information was available.
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