Ceiling Collapses At Davie Apartment Building

DAVIE (CBSMiami) – It was a rude awakening for nearly ten families at an apartment complex in Davie after water came pouring in through their ceilings which had collapsed during heavy rain and they're blaming the roofing company hired to work on the building.

Ingrid Vazquez spent Friday morning trying to salvage what personal belongings she could.

That's because there is heavy water damage, piles of insulation and sheetrock scattered all over her apartment and others in the El Jardin Apartments in Davie, after Thursday night's heavy rain caused parts of ceilings to collapse.

"My daughter goes to me, 'Mommy, it's raining.' I said 'Yea baby.' She said, 'No mommy, in my room.' My 4 year old,' explained Vazquez who lived in one of nine apartments who ceiling collapsed.

Her daughter Jade explained what she saw. "I saw a hole," said Jade.

Fortunately, Jade was not sleeping at the time because there's a giant hole in the ceiling over her bunk bed which is the size of a bed. Her mattress was soaked and her toys dirty and drenched. But Ingrid and her girls are not alone.

"It's really bad, I never expected it to be as bad as this," said a neighbor who didn't want to be identified. She was forced out by the rain inside her apartment late at night.

"As I walked out everything caved down, it just dropped," she said.

Now residents want to know how this happened.

The management company said they were in the process of renovating the roof and is blaming the roofing comp for the mess.

"The roofing company was working on the roof and they didn't secure the roof with a tarp overnight, some ceilings came down in apartments and pretty much its failure of the roofing company," according to Albert Urrechaga of Centennial Management.

But the roofing company denies that. The president of Full Cover Roofing said that the leaks happened in an area they had not been working on.

A CBS4 photojournalist was invited on the rooftop when the company arrived to assess the situation but they did not comment.

Meanwhile, residents continue to pick up and clean up their belongings as they decide what to do next.

A total of nine families were affected by the ceiling collapses and they are being assisted by the American Red Cross.