Residents Displaced By Davie Fire Say Apartment Management Doing Little To Help
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A small group of residents who were forced out of their Cameron Cove apartments in Davie earlier this week joined together Wednesday to demand that management do something to help them.
The residents say they cannot get into their apartments, they've missed work and now some are being told to pay for their own hotel rooms until they can return home.
On top of all that, they believe the management here failed them because they say the fire alarms never went off when the fire broke out.
Andrea Brown lives right above the apartment that caught fire Monday. She says she was working from home when she heard screaming and saw thick black smoke outside her window.
"I opened the door, grabbed my dog and just ran," she said. "No one even bothered to come and knock on my door and they know I'm home all the time. I could have died and no one seems to care with this company."
Brown said she never heard an alarm sounding.
"I did not hear fire alarms," she said.
Other people in the building Monday said the same thing.
"I just heard a bunch of people screaming," said Brendan Jasuta. "I didn't hear the alarms or anything so I was like, I don't know what's going on."
Davie Fire Rescue says the fire forced residents in more than half a dozen units to be displaced. A resident shared pictures Wednesday of the boarded up apartments. They know that a structural engineer needs to check to make sure the building is safe before they can return but they say the management at the complex is doing little to help them.
"They're telling us to pay out of our pocket and go through our insurance companies and we don't feel like it should be going through our insurance companies because it's really on them that the fire had gotten this bad,' said Kris Rosalez.
Rosalez says she's missing work and has only been allowed into her unit for a few minutes on Monday night to gather what she could. She says she was told she'd only be out of her apartment for a day or so.
"Absolutely horrible," she said. "A lot of us have the bare minimum. We have only the bare minimum. We're relying on friends and family to help us get through it. Almost all of us have missed out on work the past few days."
CBS 4 News visited the apartment offices Wednesday looking for answers.
"I can't give any details about anything," said an employee.
Management asked a CBS 4 News crew to leave the property. We called the management company for the apartment Wednesday but it was after hours and their offices were closed and we have not heard back from them.
Residents say they cannot afford to pay for hotels, especially when they're missing work and they say some of the management team has been helpful, providing clothes to one displaced resident, but unable to even temporarily provide them other units in the complex.
"No one is trying to help and there's no empathy for any of us," Brown said.
The Davie Fire Marshal told CBS 4 News their work is done as is the work of the State Fire Marshal and it's up to the management company to hire a structural engineer to inspect the building. We do not know the status of that work.