Couple buys lot of fatal Portland fire

PORTLAND, Maine – A couple has purchased the Maine property where six people died in a fire, and they plan to build on the site while memorializing the victims of the tragedy.

The Portland Press Herald reports Mindy Fox and Stephen Hoffman are planning to build a duplex at the site of the Noyes Street fire. They will live in one unit and rent the other.

The Portland city assessor says the couple paid $120,000 for the lot. Hoffman says they thought of the significance of the property and want to honour the families who lost loved ones in the fire.

The 2014 fire killed six people in an apartment building between the ages of 23 and 29.

The building’s former landlord is appealing a fire code violation conviction.