BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Yet another vacant building fire broke out in downtown Bakersfield this morning, taking the life of a man. It’s a fire that joins a large number of vacant structure blazes in town.

The building on F street is one of 48 vacant buildings in downtown Bakersfield that, like many of those buildings on that list, keeps catching fire.

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The vacant building ordinance is a city law passed years ago which made property owners secure their vacant buildings and work with the city on a plan for the property.

The ordinance covers 48 structures in downtown Bakersfield “that are hot buildings that continue to be a problem or a nuisance,” said Michael Doyle, the building director for the city.

Doyle, who oversees securing vacant properties, said the centralized area of the vacant structure law allows code enforcement to do a lot more with the buildings in the law’s area.

“If you have a building that is in violation, we have more access to enforcement I would say,” said Doyle. “More legal tools for us to use, basically.”

However, there are still over two-hundred registered vacant buildings in Bakersfield that are not under the ordinance’s jurisdiction.

“We’re in the talks of expanding it from a central location into a larger location but we just need to ensure that we’re gonna have the resources to do so,” Doyle said.

The centralized location of the law does not cover an area that has had the most vacant structure fires last year: Union Avenue.

La Mirage Hotel holds the crown with 23 structure fire calls in just one year to the Bakersfield Fire Department. The owner has not secured the property and the city is going to tear down the building.

Andrae Gonzales, ward 2 Bakersfield City Councilmember, said the fire on F street Monday morning was part of a recurring problem he’s tried to fix.

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“It’s a building that’s been a real pain in my side for years now,” said Gonzales.

Gonzales said he also wants to expand the vacant structure law to cover more city areas and to amend the law to have fire detection and suppression in every vacant building.

“This means if there was a fire to start — whether it be manmade or electrical or whatever — that there would be a mechanism through which the fire department would be automatically informed,” said Gonzales.

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