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Mayor takes landlord to court over burned building

MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. — McKees Rocks officials are going to court to get a burned-out apartment building torn down months after it became unusable.

The structure on Chartiers Avenue caught fire on Dec. 27, displacing more than a dozen residents. Since then, the building has sat empty and unchanged, with disintegrating walls and blown-out windows.

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"Terrible. Looking at this every day, it's a mess,” Mayor Jack Muir said.

The borough’s code enforcement office has twice filed legal complaints of Imminent danger against the building’s owners, once in January and once in April.

"If one of them walls goes that way, we're going to have casualties,” said Muir.

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Jason Karas and his brother Aaron own the apartment building. Jason told 11 investigates they didn't have insurance, but they have a signed agreement with a demolition crew to tear the building down once they're done with another project.

“I hope it happens today,” Jason said. “I hope it's gone. I want the building gone, down, done and get past this. It's all I want.

"It's the most devastating thing we've had happen to us financially and we're doing everything we can. We've jumped through every hoop, we've followed every policy, everything they've asked us to do. I don't know what more I can do."

Nonetheless, Muir is tired of waiting.

"I'm going to be at that hearing (next month),” he said. “I'm going to request, if I'm not satisfied with what they're telling us, I'm going to ask the judge to have them incarcerated. We can't put up with this."