INDIANAPOLIS — Firefighters are all too familiar with the Best Inn on South Harding Street.
They've battled nearly a dozen fires at the same vacant hotel, whose owner is out of state.
And during some of those fires, first responders have been injured on duty.
Now, IFD hopes local lawmakers can create an emergency rule change to board up the place or get it torn down more quickly.
Firefighters say the abandoned hotel is more than just a problem property.
They call it a threat to public safety.
They've battled ten fires in 13 months at this same structure, including two just this past weekend on back to back days.
"We're not surprised anymore, but this came in and we just kind of went..again? It's been a day. It's been less than 24 hours," said IFD Battalion Chief Rita Reith.
Sunday's fire is being investigated as an arson.
During Saturday's fire, a Decatur Township firefighter got seriously hurt.
Plus, concrete slabs from the hotel fell on other firefighters.
"It's become an issue that's putting us at risk," Reith said.
The Best Inn, vacated in 2019, has had 14 health violation investigations, according to the Marion County Health Department.
It's been investigated for drug activity and vandalism and is often occupied by squatters and people experiencing homelessness.
Richard Brown called it home until Sunday.
His tools used for landscaping work to make a living, he says, got melted down in the fire.
"This time I lost everything you know," Brown said. "Junkies got in here, I left and they got into an argument and the place caught on fire."
Brown says he's at risk the way things are now, as well.
"it's a danger to let it keep going on the way it's going on, the way things have transpired here," Brown said. "If they're going to demo it, demo it. If not, let somebody that can surely use it have it. Put a homeless shelter or a ministry in there -- something that's going to benefit the community instead of an eyesore."
With all that danger and all these fires, many wonder why doesn't the city just take down the hotel?
Firefighters have learned it's not that simple.
"What we're finding out is there's so many layers, from ownership of the building and what can they do to secure the building, you know the processes by which you have a demolition hearing and what are the rights of the owners, rights of the city you know all of those layers," Reith said. "Once it's in the system, it's just plain old molasses to get it to work."
Those layers of rules and regulation aren't for lack of effort, she says.
The city is working to get something done.
Department of business and neighborhood services says there is a demolition order for the hotel.
A first hearing set for March 30th.
But the whole process, from three potential hearings to approval to bidding to contractors actually getting to work on the hotel could stretch into 2022.
Fire crews fear they don't have that kind of time.
"I don't know if there's anything specifically we can do other than bring attention to it and allow the lawmakers and the people who have the ability to create an ordinance to help us out," Reith said. "At the very least, we want to get it boarded it up and then secondarily get all the combustibles out of the building to make the opportunity to start a fire less."
So, they're hoping for some sort of a rule change to make this place safer, more quickly.
Until that happens, Reith says there's an order from IFD saying any future fires at the hotel will be "defensive only", battled from the outside, so that lives are not put at risk.
"At this point, it's a matter of our safety as much as it is anything else and we just want to make sure that we're working with every avenue possible," Reith said, "to try to get things expedited than a normal circumstance."