Fire pushes opening of veterans home back 4 to 6 months

Feb. 9—A speedy response from the Marshfield Fire Department saved the historic structure on Ocean Street currently being renovated into eight units of veterans house.

"If it wasn't for the very quick response from the Marshfield Fire Department, we would have totally lost the building," said Robert Corley, CEO of Neighbor Works Housing Solutions, the organization overseeing the development. "The fire department and the firefighters saved it."

Renovations on the 163-old structure were nearly complete, with tenants selected from a pool of veteran applications; damage from the fire has pushed the opening day back 4 to 6 months.

"We're still moving forward, we're doing everything we can," Selectmen Chair Michael Bradley said. "It's just going to take more time."

Officials said the cause of the fire was likely electrical, but the most significant damage was caused by smoke and heat rather than flames, in part due to the building's new icynene insulation trapping in the high heat.

"The smoke and heat damage throughout the building is extensive," Corley said. "The actual flame damage is isolated to the rear, newer-construction area."

Corley said the heat got so intense, fire lights in a room at the front of the building, the opposite side from the flames, melted off the walls.

After work by assessors and insurance companies is complete, the process will begin to strip back most of the sheetrock and finishes, re-insulate, re-sheetrock and replace the finishes.

The structure was built in 1857 as the South Grammar School, which it remained before being converted to a town library in the early 1900s. After 43 years as a library, the town sold the building to the Hancock Paint Company, which operated a retail storefront until 2005.

At the October 2017 special Town Meeting, voters authorized selectmen to sell or lease the property, which had previously been acquired by the town in 2008. At the April 2018 annual Town Meeting, voters approved the project.

"We are pivoting and mobilizing to get back to work as soon as possible," Corley said."We will open this building. There will be veterans living there."

Follow James Kukstis on Twitter at @MarinerJamesK.

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