Inspectors found fire safety issues at Columbia apartments months before blaze broke out
An apartment complex in North Columbia where an electrical fire broke out on July 27 received the lowest inspection rating earlier this year from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development of any subsidized housing complex in the city.
The 200-unit Hillandale Apartments, at 525 Alcott Drive, received a score of 27 out of 100 on its latest inspection in March. The inspection score from HUD showed the property had at least one health and safety violation that required immediate attention, including fire safety issues and problems with smoke detectors.
Now residents are working with local social justice organization, One Common Cause Community Control Initiative, to raise awareness about living conditions at Hillandale.
“This should have been brought to the forefront a long time ago,” Sonya Lewis, the chief information liaison for the group, said at a press conference outside the damaged building on Wednesday. “We still have concerns that if we move the residents to another apartment or another unit within the facility, that we could have the same outcome. That there could be another fire.”
When Kacie Turner moved to Hillandale in July, she was looking forward to having her own place for her and her 4-year-old daughter. But soon after she arrived, she noticed problems with the electricity. When she plugged in the vacuum, the lights on one side of the house would flicker on and off.
Still, she ignored it because “the rent was $500 and as a single parent it was one of the only places that was affordable for me.”
Then on July 27, she returned home from a trip to Charleston to find that her apartment and all her possessions had been destroyed in the fire.
“I had only been there for a few weeks and I lost everything in the blink of an eye,” she said.
The two-alarm fire damaged five units and displaced at least six residents, according to the Columbia Fire Department. The cause was activity in the electrical wiring leading up to a stove in a vacant unit, according to the Richland County Fire Marshal.
Most of the displaced residents stayed in a hotel paid for by the Red Cross until Friday, when they were moved into other units at Hillandale, Lewis said.
Alpha Barnes Real Estate Services, the Texas-based company that manages the property, declined to comment.
Hillandale’s local property asset manager, Willie Williams, said he was hired in March after the HUD inspection score was released, “to come in and troubleshoot and make sure everything was kept up to par.”
Williams said his first priority is to fix any problems with electrical wiring and put in all new smoke detectors and fire extinguishers. But so far only four out of 21 buildings have been brought up to standard.
A spokesperson from HUD said that typically, owners are required to mitigate all deficiencies within 60 days of an inspection but “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the owner requested and HUD approved an extension to complete repairs by September 12, 2020.”
The State has asked HUD for the March inspection reports.
Williams said a lack of funding has also slowed repairs.
Out of the 200 units at Hillandale, only 20 are subsidized by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“There’s no money coming from the government other than for their 20 units,” he said. “The rest is coming from the owner’s pocket.”
Miranda Spivey, manager for Richland County Emergency Services’ Fire and Enforcement Division, said the county fire marshal’s office last inspected the property in December 2019. Inspectors found three violations including one involving a smoke alarm and another involving a fire extinguisher, but those issues have been corrected.
“The only way that we would know unfortunately if there’s any electrical issues is if we’re notified by the tenants,” she said. “So if they have a problem they need to call the Fire Marshal.”
Alice Bolton, another resident who was displaced by the fire, has been living in a HUD subsidized unit since 2012. She has experienced problems ranging from mold, to vermin to squatters living in the building across from hers. In June she was moved to a different unit after someone kicked her front door in.
When the fire broke out in her building, “The first thing that was going through my head was ‘I knew this would happen,’” she said, adding that she noticed her breaker box making crackling noises “like the sound of something sizzling in a pan.”
Bolton said she has put in countless work orders and tried to express concerns to the property managers but it was to no avail. In the past, she said she filed formal complaints with HUD but eventually gave up after no actions were taken.
Williams said since he has taken over the property, Bolton has not filed any maintenance requests and before that the only complaint on file was in regards to a broken lock. The State has asked HUD about Bolton’s complaints.
“It’s like they look down on us,” Bolton said. “Just because we don’t live in the Hamptons or we can’t really afford full rent doesn’t mean they should treat us like we’re less than anybody else.”
Spivey said the issues Bolton described were “concerning,” and that if the property manager was aware of problems with the electricity and failed to take action, “that’s not acceptable at all.”
Spivey said her office has asked the property managers to provide them with a copy of their maintenance records, but the records have not yet been received. If there are unresolved complaints related to fire safety, she said her department would take the necessary actions to correct those.
Lewis, from One Common Cause Community Control Initiative, said her group got involved after two of the displaced residents approached them for help.
On Thursday, Williams and One Common Cause negotiated an agreement that allowed the affected residents to be moved into different units rent free for three months.
Still, Turner said she’s uneasy about returning to the property.
“I don’t know when I go to sleep at night if I’ll wake up the next day or die in a fire,” she said. “But I don’t have a choice. This is the only place I can live right now that I can afford.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 11:37 AM.
