Bushwick Row House in the Middle of Renovating After a Fire Struck Again by Flames

This row of buildings on Bushwick Avenue keeps catching fire! The sad story of the one in the middle, at 1138 Bushwick Avenue, illustrates the dangers of owning property next to an abandoned wreck.

The gray and white row house on the right above, No. 1138, was almost done with its renovation following a fire in September when the house next door at 1140, above left, caught fire again Tuesday. When we stopped by to see the damage yesterday morning, inspectors were surveying the wreckage.

We suspect both fires were caused by vagrants, whom we have seen sitting on the stoop of 1140 Bushwick Avenue on many occasions over years.

In September, a fire started at 1138 Bushwick Avenue, which was unoccupied, according to news reports at the time. It had been purchased for $650,000 by an LLC the previous June. The fire quickly spread to the neighboring two buildings at 1140 and 1136 Bushwick Avenue.

When we stopped by a few weeks ago, workers were finishing up a renovation of the wood frame house at 1138 Bushwick Avenue. The asphalt siding and porch were gone, replaced by a stucco facade with a geometric pattern in shades of gray and white.

As we were snapping some photos, two ladies who live in the area and own property nearby stopped to chat. Local rumor has it that some squatters who were living in one of the buildings somehow set the September fire, they told us.

Tuesday, fire struck again, this time at 1140 Bushwick Avenue, which has been empty and boarded up for some years. Now the top floor is completely gone.

Next door at No. 1138, the new facade doesn’t look too badly affected, but we’re guessing there may be a lot of smoke and water damage inside. We also see what may be holes in the roof and some broken windows.

In January, the city filed a lis pendens against the property at 1140 Bushwick Avenue for “unsafe building,” but it apparently had no effect.

That’s not the only lis pendens on the property — there are many and they stretch back to at least 2003. Most are from the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and three are from mortgage lenders.

The house has changed hands frequently over the years, sometimes for relatively high sums. It most recently sold to an LLC in 2012 for $808,500. A pattern of frequent, high-priced trades and lis pendens can indicate mortgage fraud.

When that is the case, often a house becomes abandoned and home to squatters. (We toured at least one such a house in Bushwick in 2008, in fact, when we were looking for a place to buy.)

Perhaps the property will sell again, if title can be cleared, to an investor who will rebuild.

We hope the new owner of No. 1138 has insurance to enable him to complete the renovation, so the building doesn’t become derelict like the one next door.

See below for more photos of the house at 1138 Bushwick Avenue as it has evolved over the years.

Post-fire photos by Steve Sherman; pre-fire photos by Cate Corcoran; 2012 photo by Christopher Bride for PropertyShark

Below, the house at 1138 Bushwick Avenue under renovation a few weeks ago.

Below, 1138 Bushwick Avenue in 2012, before renovation. The wood frame house was covered in asphalt shingles and had a porch. It is flanked by two similar houses on either side.