The cellar of a house on Union Street filled with several feet of water Saturday in an incident city police are treating as vandalism. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – The mortgage on a Union Street house may have been underwater when the bank foreclosed on the property but the house was literally under water on Saturday when a real estate agent went to the property and found several feet of water in the basement.
City police received a call shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday reporting that water was pouring into the basement at 265 Union and was half way up the cellar stairs of the single family house.
Both police and firefighters responded to the call and Fire Capt. Ben Warren reports that when firefighters arrived the water in the basement was reaching all the way up to the floor joists of the first floor.
Warren reports that the real estate agent responsible for the property told him that the bank holding the mortgage had foreclosed on the property and taken possession.
The agent told Warren that a repair contractor had already been engaged to prepare the property for sale.
The firefighters did not pump the water out of the cellar as the contractor was on hand to deal with the flooded house.
Officer Harry Sienkiewicz also arrived at the house and reports that the agent said that she believes the flood to be intentional and he found evidence which seems to support her supposition.
Sienkiewicz reports that he found a knife sticking in a kitchen wall and also found two photos of the house taken during a natural flood posted on the wall. Near the pictures, written on the wall with a felt tipped marker, was the legend “I (heart symbol) floods”.
City records show that the property was owned by Kevin L. Fournier, 36, before the bank foreclosed.
On Wednesday, a crew of workers was seen moving property from the house to several large refuse containers.
Police Capt. Hipolito Nunez said later that, because of the depth of the water in the basements, it was not possible to immediately determine the source of the flooding because “it was flooded, you couldn’t get down there.”
“There was a good six or seven feet of water” he said.
