A vacant school that was badly damaged by fire in Halifax’s north end last weekend is being demolished.
The Halifax Regional Municipality said Wednesday work to tear down the unstable walls of the Bloomfield building has begun.
Agricola Street was closed to pedestrian and vehicle traffic between Ontario and Almon streets for several hours Wednesday while work crews were on site. It reopened around 1:30 p.m.
Fences were erected around the site Tuesday and crews were cutting down trees in the area Wednesday morning.
Firefighters responded to the former Bloomfield School on Agricola Street around 1:35 a.m. Sunday. They found flames on the first floor and basement of the structure.
Nearly 50 firefighters brought the fire under control by 5:45 a.m., but one building was destroyed.
Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency is investigating the cause of the fire.
Derelict school has been vacant for years
The site’s three derelict buildings, which have been plagued by graffiti, shattered windows and crumbling bricks, have sat vacant for years. The property has also attracted trespassers and people experiencing homelessness.
At one time, the former school was set to be converted into 500 residential units, with about 40 per cent of those units set aside as affordable housing. But the Nova Scotia government pulled out as the developer of the project in 2016.
The Halifax Regional Municipality owned the property at the time, but the site had been on the city’s surplus list since 2009.
HRM sold the property to developer BANC for almost $22 million in the summer of 2020.
The deal included a five-year deadline for the developer to start revamping the property, including developing a public space and block of affordable housing units.
As the site fell further into disrepair, the city’s fire inspector noted a number of safety concerns, including falling bricks and fires being set inside the buildings.
The developer told CTV News in May 2023 that he couldn’t afford to pay the $2 million quoted to demolish the buildings.
It isn’t clear at this time what will happen with the site moving forward.
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