City firefighters found a “smoldering mattress” and “a large pile of trash burning in the basement” at 58 Avon St. on Feb. 28 — while responding to the first of two fires that would take place in less than three weeks at the same East Rock six-unit building owned by Bethany-based landlord Jianchao Xu. That detail is included in a 13-page New Haven Fire Department (NHFD) incident report about the Feb. 28 blaze. The Independent obtained a copy of the report on Tuesday via a Freedom of Information Act request. Acting Fire Chief Daniel Coughlin told the Independent on Wednesday that it does not look like someone was living in the building’s basement at the time of the Feb. 28 fire. He described that area of the basement as likely being used for storage. He also said that the “trash” on fire consisted of clothing, “rags,” and other debris. While the cause of the Feb. 28 fire is still under investigation, the incident report provides a preliminary look at what responding firefighters found when they arrived at the Avon Street building soon after 6 a.m. in response to a basement fire. Sixteen days later, city firefighters returned to 58 Avon St. to put out still another fire — this one having started on the first floor. The cause of that second fire is also still under investigation. Coughlin confirmed on Wednesday that he called in an accelerant-sniffing dog to assist with the investigation of that second fire. He said that dogs must be used to investigate fires in which someone dies. Coughlin said he deployed the dog to help look into this second fire because of how unusual it is that two fires take place at the same building within just 16 days. The Feb. 28 fire displaced 17 tenants and left one half of the six-unit building condemned. The March 16 fire re-displaced four tenants and saw the city condemn the whole property. All of this comes roughly two and a half years after still another fire broke out in the basement of this same Avon Street building in November 2023, displacing roughly two dozen people in the process. The incident report for the Feb. 28 fire states that all companies responded to a box alarm at 58 Avon St. for a fire in the basement. Capt. Timothy Papp from Rescue 1 wrote in the incident report about the large pile of burning trash in the basement. “Broken sprinkler pipe was holding fire in check,” he wrote. “Primary of basement completed and negative. Water on the fire, asked for windows to be taken. Conducted primary search of all floors and negative.” Later on in the incident report, Lt. William Regan of Truck 3 wrote that firefighters “[o]pened windows on all 3 floors for ventilation and removed a smoldering mattress from the basement, mattress was dragged into back yard and extinguished with a can by truck 3 inside. All [equipment] was accounted for, all members wore proper PPE and no injuries were reported. Salt truck was requested due to icy conditions in the street.” In still another section of the incident report, Lt. Jeffrey Seward of Engine 8 wrote about finding smoke coming from the basement door of the building. “Charged line stretched into basement and fire extinguished,” he wrote. “Pile of rubbish and ceiling above opened up and extinguished fully.” Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the city’s Building Department filed an “unsafe structure” notice on the city’s land records database about how 56 Avon St. has been condemned following the building’s second fire, which took place on Monday. That notice indicates that city Building Official Bob Dillon inspected the property on March 16 as the fire department responded to a “structure fire.” The notice orders the landlord to secure “required permits to verify life safety and to fix affected areas including gas permits, electrical permits and building permits.” The notice also states that all six dwelling units at 56-58 Avon St. “are hereby deemed unsafe and its further use and/or occupancy prohibited by the Building Official until [the] fire marshal’s office, LCI and Building Department grant permission.” See below to read that March 16 notice in full. The post Burning Trash, “Smoldering Mattress” Found At Avon House Fire appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less