HRM could consider buy back rights for former Bloomfield School in light of recent fire
Posted Feb 23, 2025 12:50:50 PM.
Last Updated Feb 24, 2025 09:31:35 AM.
A Halifax Regional Municipality councillor is asking the CAO to provide an update regarding the municipality’s buy back rights for the site of the former Bloomfield School in light of a recent fire.
Around 1:35 a.m. of Feb. 18, fire crews were called to the site of the former school on Agricola Street in Halifax’s north end. They discovered a three-alarm fire consisting of a blaze on the first floor and basement.
The response brought 49 firefighters who acted quickly to control the fire through barricaded windows and doors.
It was declared under control at 5:45 a.m., leaving a lone building in rubble. The fire was kept from spreading to other sections of the former school.
It is still unknown what caused the fire but the catastrophe has led one councillor to question the municipality’s role in the preservation of the site.
The former school site has sat vacant since 2014 and since being bought in 2021 continues to remain empty.
District 8 Councillor Virginia Hinch is saying information should be provided to council to determine the opportunities available to aggress “the unsatisfactory situation currently occurring on the property.”
If her motion passes, it requests the CAO to present council with a staff report on the options to address the situation at the site while providing options for cost recovery, and to update the municipality on it buy back rights.
The motion will be voted on in council on Feb. 25.
