SALT LAKE CITY — The Ballpark neighborhood is in search of solutions during the final meeting of the year for the Ballpark Community Council.
This comes after four fires broke out in a six-day span last week on the same street in the neighborhood.
Amy J. Hawkins has been the Ballpark Community Council Chair since 2018.
"They go through cycles of catching fire and then being boarded up and then we then they're put out and reboarded," said Hawkins.
Hawkins says three of those fires took place at vacant homes on Major Street, two of which were at the same abandoned house.
"We expected that these properties would be a problem this winter, especially once it got cold, this was pretty intense," said Hawkins.
Dan Dalton, the owner of Davis Distributing says one of his employees arrived at work last week to one of the fires in progress.
"Monday morning one of our shop managers arrived with flames coming out of the second fire of one of the abandoned buildings," said Dalton.
Dalton has owned his business for two years, right across the street from where the fires took place.
"Lots of drugs and homelessness that the abandoned properties bring to the area, it's very frustrating," said Dalton.
Something Dalton says is having an impact on his business.
"Customers when they come up and pull up, the characters that are walking up and down the street, it frightens them," said Dalton.
Salt Lake City Fire Department officials told FOX 13 News on Thursday that they are still investigating what caused all of the fires that took place on Major Street.
Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown says he was aware of the issues taking place in the Ballpark neighborhood and has things in the works to address them.
"We have the fire department, we work with the city and so it's a very complex issue and I think it's going take all of us, including the community," said Chief Brown.
Paul Komenda is the Project Manager with Fit to Recover.
"Fit to recover is a safe place for people in recovery and that is dealing with mental health," said Komenda.
Along with Ian Acker, who founded the business, they decided to open up their newest location next month, just down the street from where the recent rash of fires took place.
"I was born down, born and raised down the street and I've seen it my whole life," said Komenda.
Which is why they say they are working to be part of the solution in that part of the Ballpark neighborhood.
"Impact is something that's really, really important to us when we make decisions and this seems to be an impactful place to make a change," said Acker.
The Ballpark Community Council's final meeting of the year will begin tonight at 7 p.m.
Hawkins tells FOX 13 News officials with Civil Enforcement, Salt Lake City Fire Department and Salt Lake City Police will join the meeting to talk about community input needed to build a nuisance enforcement case against the vacant homes on Major Street.
