Apartment fire leaves families without home, belongings during the holidays

By JASMINE ARENAS

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — A few Colorado families are seeking answers after a small fire and asbestos contamination would run them out of their homes for weeks. The fire happened on Dec. 4 at the Cedar Run apartments in south Denver on S. Oneida st. when a garden-level staircase caught on fire.

Denver Fire put out the fire and no one was hurt in the process, but now some residents are feeling left in the dark. One tenant CBS News Colorado spoke with says he feels helpless.

On top of the fire and chaos of the evacuation earlier this month, now there is mold.

Though there was no fire damage, the mold means he can’t go back to get his things and now his hotel voucher is up and he is worried about where he is going to sleep when he checks out on Tuesday.

“My fear is my property being destroyed or being disposed of,” said the tenant.

The long-time tenant who didn’t want to be identified is just one resident in the 62-unit complex whose lease has been terminated.

“We now have to find another place, we don’t have any security deposit back, they really offered no compensation for another place,” said the tenant.

The Colorado Department of Public Health Environment documents suggest the property manager knew about the presence of asbestos in 2019.

But this resident says he hadn’t been informed about that this year when he signed his new lease.

“We signed a new lease in 2022, and in that one, they state they have no knowledge of it, but when I go to the state’s website I can see that it was over 10 permits that they had to file to have abetment come and remove asbestos on some of the units,” said the tenant.

Right now tenants, are feeling overwhelmed with the uncertainty of never getting their stuff back.

“I have quite a bit stuff that is valuable in there… between electronics and my brother who just recently passed so all of his estate items are sitting in my dining room,” added the tenant.

According to an email from property management to tenants read in part: “Until we have more information, we cannot say what will happen with your contents, but you should assume you will not have access to them for some time.” – Gina Pacheco, community manager for Cedar Run Apartments.

Management said tenants can reach out if there is something urgent… the tenant we met said he has tried to no avail.

“I am just hoping they can get their stuff and put this behind them… I know it is going to hurt a lot of people in a lot of ways,” said the tenant.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.

We have yet to hear back from the property manager.

Property management has been updating tenants via email, while they’re acknowledging there is an issue, residents still feel like they’ve been left in the dark.

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