Owner may face charges after a four fires in three years have
been ignited
on his land
Gilroy – A landowner could face penalties after his abandoned lot was set ablaze a week ago – the fourth fire on the property in three years, according to Gilroy Fire Department division chief Ed Bozzo.
Transients often camp out on James Costanza’s property at Murray Avenue and Las Animas Road, said Bozzo. The sheds and outbuildings attract vagrants, who have ignited four fires on the lot over the past three years. A grassfire on the weed-ridden lot took 12 vehicles more than an hour to defeat last Wednesday night, when two additional fires left the department strapped for resources.
“The fire didn’t threaten any structure substantially,” said fire marshal Jackie Breshnyder, “but it ties up the fire department.”
Costanza was under an enforcement order for weed abatement, and had promised to cut down on flammable grasses by letting cattle graze on the site, said Breshnyder. From the scale of Wednesday’s blaze, she said, it’s doubtful he had done so. The decaying structures created debris, and prevented firefighters from bringing in a tractor to wipe out weeds.
Breshnyder and Bozzo both added that Costanza had fallen ill this year, which may have prevented him from addressing the problem. Ironically, last week’s fire significantly reduced the fire risk at Costanza’s property, said chief Dale Foster. Brush and weeds have been replaced by burned timbers and scorched grass.
But abandoned properties such as Costanza’s remain a sticky issue for firefighters. Bozzo estimated that transients cause one or two fires in Gilroy each year. Teenagers have also adopted vacant buildings as hangouts: about four years ago, an abandoned house on Las Animas Road was set aflame by teens, he said.
“We don’t have any codes or ordinances that say that once you have an abandoned structure, you have to do certain things to it,” Breshnyder said. “Whenever you have any kind of structure that becomes vacated, you always run the risk of vagrants going in there and accidentally or intentionally setting a fire.”
Blight and weed ordinances are one route to cleaning up fire-prone properties, Bozzo said. But as Costanza’s case demonstrates, enforcement can be a slow process, while grass fires spread quickly.
