Former mayor, business owner shares concerns over former Silvia School building after fire

FALL RIVER, Mass. (WLNE) — A business owner and former mayor is sharing his concerns on the recent fire at the former Silvia School in Fall River.

The Fall River Fire Department believes the fire on Saturday was started by a person, but officials don’t know if it was started on purpose.

Former Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan owns Cosmopolitan Dispensary, which is within a stone’s throw of the former Silvia School on Hartwell Street.

“We started smelling smoke and the next thing you know there were flames billowing from the vacant building next door to us, it was very alarming, very concerning,” Flanagan said.

Saturday afternoon, fire broke out at the vacant city-owned building, causing heavy damage to the second and third floor, as well as a partial roof collapse.

Luckily, Flanagan’s business was untouched but he said the old school has been a concern for the last three years he’s owned Cosmopolitan.

“We’ve been after the city to get that property cleaned up, it’s attracted nuisance, there have been other fires at that property,” Flanagan said.

The fire was knocked down around 4 a.m. Sunday but in the meantime, traffic was blocked off as crews fought the flames.

Flanagan said his security cameras caught something before the fire started.

“We saw four individuals walking into the building and four individuals walking out of the vacant building, we were able to see their faces, who they were, the types of clothing they had on, I would encourage them to turn themselves in because it’s just a matter of time before law enforcement is knocking on the door,” Flanagan said.

Flanagan was advised not to share the security footage due to the ongoing investigation but said those individuals appeared to be juveniles.

Now more than ever, Flanagan is calling on the city to do something to clean up the space.

“The city has been struggling to sell the property, we even contacted the city telling the city we would knock it down and make it a beautiful green space, we just can no longer have it act as an eye sore in our neighborhood,” Flanagan explained. “It brings a negative look to the city of Fall River.”

No one was hurt in the fire.

ABC6 News reached out to the city to see if they plan to demolish the building and are waiting to hear back.