Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Deadline day for displaced condo residents to find new home
NORTH MIAMI (WSVN) -- Residents of a North Miami condo have to leave their homes after a fire last month left the building without power.
During a meeting yesterday evening, board members and Miami-Dade Fire Officials told residents of the Bayview Palms Condominiums they have until noon Wednesday to move out and find another place to stay.
Residents have been living without power for nearly a month after a fire broke out in an electrical room on March 28. The blaze knocked out the power inside the 163-unit building along San Souci Boulevard and 18th Avenue, making the fire alarms inoperable.
Fire marshals deemed the building unsafe to live in, forcing residents to find a new home. This news made many residents upset, leaving some of them with no where else to live. "There is no place to go. If you don't have family and anything, where are you going to go?" said a worried resident. "To go to a hotel or something like that and pay $65 a night? It's too much."
Chief Manny Mena of the Miami-Dade County Fire Marshal said residents have had three weeks to find another place, and allowing them to stay another day in a building without electricity is risky. "The code is what it is, the law is what it is, and I've already extended, and I'm putting people at risk. I'm not going to put 68 families at further risk."
Board members told residents they're unsure how long before they can return to their homes, saying they need to plan to be gone for at least six months.
Residents will be allowed to schedule appointments to come back to their units to retrieve some of their belongings.
A workshop began Wednesday for Bayview Palms residents at the Gwen Margolis Community Center at 1590 NE 123rd St. from 10 a.m. and lasts until 3 p.m. The people working there will try to find housing for everyone who shows up.
(Copyright 2008 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
