The people who live on the west side of Claridge II were told today that they can finally go home. The residents of about 165 apartments had been forced to evacuate on Monday evening because of an upper floor fire in the condominium.
The residents were told that there is only one working elevator on the west side, and that there may be a lingering smell from some of the repair work. Elevators on the Manhattan-facing east side of the building are not working, but that is not because of the fire. Building management said however that they have located two potential elevator “drives” that may be compatible with those systems.
Verona officials have yet to make an official determination of the cause of the fire, which sent one person to the hospital and saw 39 first responders evaluated at the scene for health issues.
Verona first responders were called to the 12-story Claridge tower just before noon on Monday and they were eventually joined by fire, EMS, police and emergency management teams from across Essex County. The Verona teams remained at the building until 11:30 p.m. Monday night.
They may be “allowed” to return home but many residents are unable to do so as there are NO working elevators on the east side of the building. Imagine being in your eighties or nineties and told you can go home – but you live on the 12th floor. Or the 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th…etc. These residents have not had access to their homes since Monday July 3rd and have not been told when the situation will be rectified. How is it possible that 5 of 6 elevators are not functioning. In my opinion there is some serious poor building maintenance coming to light. Hopefully someone can explain otherwise – this is a debacle!
These are older buildings which I’m sure has its fair share of elderly , retired occupants. All trying to keep that monthly fee down. Let’s recall the recent collapse in Florida when trying to do the same thing. Seems costs will be going up for tenants..