Regency Tower residents in Colorado Springs still displaced following fire
(UPDATE) After six days, residents of the Regency Tower high-rise apartments in southwest Colorado Springs remain displaced following a fire.
Residents received a phone call on Wednesday saying residents of floors 1 through 9 could return home. Shortly after that, they received another phone call saying they can’t return home because of an air quality control inspection.
There is no word yet on when residents will be able to return home.
“It’s very upsetting and frustrating,” one resident said. “First we think we’re going home, then we’re not. It’s too stressful for some of my neighbors.”
The fire started in a 10th-floor unit late Friday morning, forcing the evacuation of more than 100 people — mostly retirees and seniors ages 55 and older.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Previous story
It could be a few more days before more than 100 seniors are let back into the Regency Tower Apartments.
The high-rise tower in south Colorado Springs caught fire on Friday, displacing everyone who lives inside.
Betty Sisneros, an 11-year-resident says, “We’re all displaced, we don’t have our homes and we don’t have our personal belongings.”
Capt. Brian Vaughan with the Colorado Springs Fire Department says they released the building back to its owners on Saturday afternoon, but there’s still work to be done before people can live there again.
“Floors one through nine, we need to make sure all the smoke alarms are working, that all the smoke alarms are intact,” he explained.
The bigger problem is floors 10 and 11. Vaughan said there was heavy water damage to part of the building, and because of that, the electrical wiring and the smoke alarm panel needs to be checked before CSFD can go back in and inspect it.
Sisneros said she would wait as long as she has a home to go back to.
“I have no expectations. If it takes longer, that’s okay. We need to come where it’s safe,” she explained.
The cause of the fire has not been released yet. CSFD said they should be releasing details on in the next day or so.
