Kensington: Once a Factory, Now a Pile of Rubble

The former site of an abandoned factory at 2nd and Somerset St.
The former site of an abandoned factory at 2nd and Somerset St.
The former site of an abandoned factory at 2nd and Somerset St. It burned down on January 11, 2011.
The former site of an abandoned factory at Second and Somerset streets. It burned down on Jan. 11, 2011.

The block is reminiscent of news footage from the streets of a war zone, but it’s not an international war zone. This is Kensington.

Nearly a month after a four-alarm fire at Second and Somerset streets, the lot where an abandoned factory once stood is still covered in rubble. A mess of bricks, cinder blocks, pipes and wiring sits untouched and only partially fenced-off, with tattered, yellow police tape blowing in the wind.

In the middle of the debris stands a tall smoke stack, the only part of the former warehouse that wasn’t destroyed by fire or demolished. “They can’t knock that part down,” said Angel Rodrigues, a 9-year-old boy who lives nearby. “They don’t know if it’ll come this way or that way. It might fall on somebody.”

Rodrigues said the fire was “started by crackheads,” who would use the vacant building to smoke crack cocaine.

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Rubble sits on the former site of a factory at 2nd and Somerset St.Rubble sits on the former site of a factory at 2nd and Somerset St.This smoke stack was left standing due to safety concerns.

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