Syracuse police and fire investigators are trying to determine the cause of the massive fire Friday evening that collapsed parts of the former Maria Regina College on the city’s north side. There are plans to redevelop the sprawling vacant campus into housing.
Firefighters were on the scene until 9 a.m. Monday checking for leftover hot spots, and will continue to monitor the building. Meanwhile, the investigation begins, and police chief Joe Cecile said they’ve already spoken with witnesses.
“Folks from the community who believe they saw something suspicious prior to the to the fire, so we’ve been interviewing them,” Cecile said. “We’ve been going through countless camera footage, not only our own COPS camera footage, but as you can imagine, there’s businesses in the area that have cameras and we have a lot of ring cameras on these residential properties. So we’ve been looking at that footage.”
Cecile said the building has a history of vandalism, and there were signs that people have been staying there in recent months. The campus has been empty for at least a decade, and Deputy Commissioner of Code Enforcement Jake Dishaw said it’s been a challenge to protect it from trespassers and the elements…