If everything goes according to plan, the 118 Sandwich Road rubble pile saga should finally be coming to a close at the beginning of the new year.

Following a hearing on Tuesday, December 6, the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to give family members until January 10 to sift through the property for any items of sentimental value that may have survived the fire that destroyed the home this past January.

After that time, the town will have the property cleared and explore whether to place a lien on the property to cover the cost of the clean-up.

Joseph Phillips, who lived at the home, was unable to attend the hearing because he was could not get evening transportation from the nursing home he currently resides in as a result of the injuries he sustained in the fire at his home.

Phillips' lawyer, attorney Robert Perry, attended on his behalf. Phillips' brother William Black, who is listed as a property owner with Phillips and their sister Virginia Phillips, also attended the hearing, along with his two daughters, Jerae Black and Tahnisha Phillips.

Emotions ran high between Tahnisha Phillips and Perry after the hearing, after Perry made a comment to her and she told him to "get out of my face." The two argued and moved into the hall, where all parties began shouting. Wareham Police were called to the Multi-service Center. Multiple cruisers responded, but no one was arrested.

William Black also caused some disturbance in the meeting, having to be told multiple times to wait his turn to speak by Chairman Walter Cruz.

During the hearing, William Black told the Selectmen that he wanted the chance to look for items of sentimental value on the property before the pile was completely cleared away, adding that he was unaware of the number of things his brother had accumulated on the property prior to the fire.

"The problem is it didn't just come there over night," he said.

Members of the Board of Selectmen, Health Agent Robert Ethier, and members of Joseph Phillips' family all suggested that Joseph Phillips had a problem with hoarding.

The family has been trying to clear the property on their own since January, according to Jerae Black, but does not have the funds to secure machines and other tools to make the process go faster.

"We're doing the best we can," she told the Selectmen.

The property had been deemed a problem for the Board of Health because of Joseph Phillips' hoarding even before the fire destroyed the home.

Ethier said that he had been to court with Joseph Phillips six times in his nine years serving as Wareham's Health Agent. The Board of Health won the last case and Joseph Phillips was asked to either clean up his property or he face a $5,000 fine or three years in prison. None of this came to pass before the January 2011 fire that destroyed the home.

The Selectmen acknowledged the emotional nature of the problem and expressed their sympathies to the family, but firmly noted that the property is a hazard and needs to be cleaned up as quickly as possible.

Ethier said he believes the family was doing the best they can under the circumstances, but added that the property does pose health and safety issues, calling it one of the "worst situations" he has seen on the job.

Joseph Phillips faced a $5,000 fine or three years in prison, not $500 as originally reported in this article. We apologize for the error.