THOMPSON, N.Y. -- A building illegally occupied at the Far Site Bungalow Colony was shut down after Town of Thompson officials found several violations.
“It had deplorable condition, it had illegal wiring and unsafe wiring all over the place, holes in the floor, terrible place,” said Thompson Town Supervisor William Rieber.
The town building inspector says at least one family, numerous teens and workers were living inside the Route 17B condemned building.
Officials say unsafe bungalows are an issue they have dealt with all summer.
“We deal with a lot of issues like that," Rieber said. "We respond vigorously and aggressively to help safety issues, particularly this one and others like it.”
“What we try to do with the summer residents, the bungalow colonies and the summer camps is we perform fire safety inspections in those units before the season begins,” said Bethel Town Supervisor Daniel Sturm.
Sturm says they inspect the bungalows in their town at least once a week, and if violations are found, they address them right away.
“If there’s any time we come to an unsafe condition of any kind, we try to get immediate repair to those violations,” Sturm said.
“It’s ongoing and we’re just beginning in the month of August,” said Monticello Fire Chief Scott Schoonmaker.
Schoonmaker says his company has responded to many fire calls this summer at bungalows.
“The major issue that we’re finding is the lack of proper installation and not being installed up to today’s code requirements,” Schoonmaker said.
Schoonmaker is trying to bring more awareness to the issue. He's asking municipalities and bungalow owners to work closely to make these buildings safe to prevent a tragedy, like the one in Liberty last summer, from happening.
“That’s all it’s about. Trying to protect and eliminate any possibility of that ever happening again,” Schoonmaker said.