WINDHAM – Just weeks after several families were removed from an apartment house in South Windham, the town of Windham has condemned a single-family home on Anthoine Road, citing unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Four people were living in the home at the time of the eviction.

On Aug. 5, inspectors from the Windham Code Enforcement Office investigated 30 Anthoine Road in response to a request from the Windham Police Department. According to Heather McNally, director of code enforcement, the officials found multiple code violations, including a lack of smoke detectors, egress issues, roof leaks and mold. Anthoine Road is located off Route 302 just south of the intersection of Albion and Windham Center roads.

“It was also noted that construction, plumbing and wiring had been performed without obtaining permits,” McNally wrote in an Aug. 6 memo. “Trash is piled up to 3 feet high throughout the home and includes maggot infestations on discarded food items. There is significant structural stress due to the amount of items that are piled up throughout the home.”

According to Windham’s assessor’s database, Eugene and Ruth Bellanceau have owned 30 Anthoine Road, a 2-acre property valued at $240,200, since 1981. The property contains a 1,196-square-foot, one-story ranch home built in 1980, and a 3,200-square-foot garage.

The Bellanceaus could not be reached for comment, and the town would not release any information on where the family is residing.

According to Town Manager Tony Plante, officials condemned the building on Aug. 6. Plante said that the home contained discarded food, insect larvae, excrement and black mold, as well.

“This was an instance where emergency responders were called to the house for an incident and when they arrived they discovered the situation, some degree of hoarding and other unsanitary conditions,” Plante said. “They alerted code enforcement and we got social services involved and we made the decision to order the building vacated because of the unsanitary conditions.”

According to McNally, the building conditions also violate the state’s plumbing, building and energy codes.

“The structure has been determined to be uninhabitable until such time as all life safety, building and electrical code violations have been brought into compliance and an occupancy permit has been obtained from the town,” McNally wrote, in a letter to the Bellanceaus.

If the family does not bring the building into code compliance, McNally wrote, the town could be forced to seek penalties in Portland District Court between $100 and $2,500, as well as penalties to cover the town’s legal expenses.

In late June, Windham condemned a six-unit South Windham apartment building housing 17 tenants, citing repeated life safety and electrical code violations. According to Plante, the town has condemned six buildings during the past year. Prior to the recent condemnations, the last time the town condemned a building was several years ago, Plante said.

“I know we had one probably about three years ago, an elderly couple living in a house and they didn’t have functioning plumbing so they were using basically a portable toilet and instead of disposing of the bags they would tie them up and put them in the cellar,” Plante said. “That was a bad situation.”

For the next two years, the town did not condemn any buildings, Plante said.

“We’ve seen a cluster of them over the last nine to 12 months,” he said. “What is unusual is having, I think, so many occur within a relatively short period of time.”

On Aug. 5, Windham code enforcement officers found multiple code violations, including a lack of smoke detectors, egress issues, roof leaks, and mold at 30 Anthoine Road.