Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 11:25 a.m.
Two mobile homes caught fire today at the condemned Sky-Vue Mobile Home Park, the second blaze at the park in the last three weeks.
The fires, reported at 9:20 a.m., were contained within minutes by Las Vegas Fire and Rescue firefighters, spokesman Tim Szymanski said.
Szymanski said investigators were not immediately able to determine what caused the fire at 15 W. Owens Ave. Fire investigators had previously given up on determining a cause for the July 29 two-alarm blaze that destroyed six vacant trailers at Sky-Vue.
"There's always the possibility of arson and also the possibility that homeless were in the area," Szymanski said of the site near where Las Vegas Boulevard meets Main Street, an area where the majority of the region's homeless shelters are located.
Szymanski said it would be difficult to determine if an accelerant started the fire, because, "the trailers are being trashed. It is possible someone had a gasoline can out there" among the debris.
He said because of that the presence of a gasoline can does not necessarily mean that someone deliberately poured contents from such a can on the homes to set the fire.
Las Vegas and other entities had shut down Sky-Vue on April 30 because of health and building violations.
The latest fire came two days after the city sent to the owners of the property a 10-day notice and order to abate dangerous buildings demolition notice, Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Director Orlando Sanchez said.
This means that on Aug. 26 the city, if it does not get a response from the owners, would begin action to clear the site by sending out notices for bids from contractors, then would pick the lowest responsible bid to do the job.
The city then would pay for the demolition and place a lien on the property so that when the property is sold taxpayer costs for the demolition plus a 15 percent administration fee would be recovered.
"It would take about 40 days after the deadline and it (Sky-Vue) would be gone," Sanchez said.
"The reason it takes that long is that we are required to send notice to the owner about what it will cost to do the demolition and give the owner one last chance to abate the property with his own contractor before doing it with the one we hire."
The notice comes on the heels of the failure by the DiMarco family, owners of the property, to submit what is called an action plan for vacant property.
The city sent the DiMarcos a letter dated June 18, giving them 30 days to submit the plan. The DiMarcos responded by requesting additional time because they told the city they were in the process of trying to sell the property.
That time extension lapsed, resulting in the city sending out the demolition notice Monday.
Sky-Vue owners David DiMarco and his wife, Sandi, face jail time on charges of operating the mobile home without a license and may face additional charges for the code violations. A pretrial hearing is set for Monday.
Those violations, as determined by several agencies, involved alleged failures to comply with health and safety codes for sewers, electricity and water. The park was also without a fire hydrant that the city had ordered the owners to install.
No dollar loss was immediately placed on today's fire. The trailers that were destroyed July 29 had already been in such poor condition that no dollar damage was placed on the fire, Szymanski said.
From April to June, the city spent about $85,600 in taxpayer money to close and secure the 100-space, four-acre park and relocate more than 85 of its residents.
The city's security responsibility ended in June after the last of the tenants were relocated and the security fence was in place, Sanchez said.
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