Residents of the Birch apartment building in Langley City still have not heard when they’ll be allowed to move back home, a week after a fire that killed one man.
“I just want some answers, that they can’t provide,” said Peter Lehmann.
Lehmann left the apartment building, part of a complex run by the Langley Lions Senior Citizens Housing Society, early Wednesday morning last week.
He fled without his shoes and with just the clothes on his back. After Tuesday, his emergency hotel stay ran out, and Lehmann needs to find somewhere new to stay quickly.
A letter sent to residents from the society offered cots temporarily.
“Those with NO PLANS may be sleeping on a cot at the Lions Society,” read the most recent letter.
Although that doesn’t sound like an ideal situation to Lehmann, he may wind up staying there. He came to Langley to retire, and has no family nearby who could put him up.
The society is also beginning the process of taking personal items out of residents’ suites and returning them, although Lehmann is worried about whether this possessions might be contaminated from the fire.
The suspected cause of the fire is a discarded cigarette or other smoking materials, said Langley City assistant fire chief Scott Kennedy. The fire started inside the unit, and the sprinkler did activate. “The sprinklers did their job, in containing the fire,” said Kennedy.
He said that there was water damage to the units below the third-floor suite where the fire broke out.
Restoration of the project has been turned over to the Lions Society, Kennedy said.
See related stories:
One feared dead in Langley City seniors apartment fire
and
Birch apartment fire evacuees may not return until next week
