Historic Whitney House due for demolition

The his­toric Whit­ney House is now fac­ing immi­nent demo­li­tion fol­low­ing a dev­as­tat­ing fire on Jan. 20, 2023. 

The inci­dent was thor­ough­ly inves­ti­gat­ed by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Connecticut’s Fire Depart­ment Fire Mar­shal Unit; Build­ing Offi­cial David House­man Jr. pro­vid­ed sup­port and facil­i­tat­ed inspec­tions. The fire’s ori­gin was pin­point­ed: they deter­mined the fire began in the first floor west wall bath­room area due to an elec­tric cable blowout. It was ruled an acci­den­tal fire with no signs of human tam­per­ing. The case was offi­cial­ly closed for inves­ti­ga­tion on Feb. 24, 2023. 

The Whit­ney House’s demo­li­tion will fol­low a two-phase plan. Phase one involves the devel­op­ment of a com­pre­hen­sive decom­mis­sion­ing plan, fea­tur­ing experts in var­i­ous fields. Phase two includes the removal of mate­ri­als, includ­ing asbestos, as well as dis­con­nec­tion, removal, and dis­pos­al of util­i­ties. A spe­cial­ized demo­li­tion com­pa­ny will be engaged to ensure a thor­ough removal process. READ MORE..