4-alarm Fire in Former Hospital

Saturday, July 15th 2006

Erin Conroy

The Boston Globe

FOXBOROUGH -- A four-alarm fire yesterday afternoon at the former Foxborough State Hospital damaged two of the buildings being renovated by a developer into condominiums and commercial property, authorities said.

Officials believe that the blaze, which took about two hours to control, was started accidentally by a gasoline-powered saw left behind when construction workers went to lunch.

Fire departments from more than a dozen towns responded to the fire, which caused the roof of one of the facility's 20 buildings to collapse and spread to the tower of a second building.

The hospital, which was built in the 1880s, was closed in 1976, and then used as state office space until 1993. At an auction last year, VinCo Properties of Boston purchased 93 acres for $5.17 million. With construction and sales, the community is estimated as a $100 million project, said the developer's publicist, Lisa McGonagle .

Renovations to the site began last December, and McGonagle said that the fire will not affect the projected opening of the 70 condominiums for September 2007. The community, called Chestnut Green, will also be made up of 100,000 square feet of commercial use, 55,000 square feet of retail use, and 73 single-family houses.

This article was written by Erin Conroy and published by The Boston Globe on Saturday, July 15th 2006 and NOT owned by nor affiliated with opacity.us, but are recorded here solely for educational use.

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