The 99 residents displaced by a fire at a municipal-owned housing complex are not just missing their homes — they are missing the community that existed within the walls of the apartment building.
The 99 residents displaced by a fire at a municipal-owned housing complex are not just missing their homes — they are missing the community that existed within the walls of the apartment building.
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“We have such a great community,” said Sue Stoddart, 76, one of the residents living in temporary quarters following a fire that started around 6 am Sunday at the apartment building at 99 McNaughton Ave. W. in Chatham.
She is already missing the people she’s been connected to while living at the complex for 12 years. She added the residents are always willing to help each other out.
“We’re scattered all over,” Stoddart said. “It’s really hard emotionally.”
The blaze that impacted 90 of the 120 units and caused major structural damage remains under investigation, according to information received from Chatham-Kent Fire and Rescue on Wednesday.
Stoddart said a firefighter knocked on her door telling her there was an active fire, so she grabbed her cellphone and exited the building, figuring she would be able to return.
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She started shaking after coming outside and seeing huge flames coming from the roof.
“I was kind of in a twilight zone,” Stoddart said. “I thought, ‘We ain’t going back in.’”
She couldn’t bear to return to her apartment on Tuesday when given the chance, adding her son went in to retrieve items she needs.
“It’s still so unreal.”
Robert Francis, 55, a 10-year resident of the building, noted the hallway wasn’t filled with smoke near his apartment, but said, “The chaos when fire does happen was going on.
“There were fire alarms going off, everything was going off, people running around all over the place.”
Francis said he went to a nearby apartment to get a friend he refers to as ‘Mom’ and another woman who lives in the building to make sure they got out.
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Stoddart and Francis are among the residents who are staying at a hotel in Chatham that has been arranged by Chatham-Kent’s housing services.
However, they are concerned for the future.
“It scares me,” Stoddart said, adding he can’t afford $1,500 a month rent plus utilities that is going rate for an apartment today.
Noting there’s no definite date for when the building will be repaired, Francis said, “As it stands right now, we don’t have a home we can go back to.”
He is concerned for himself, but more so for others, noting for those living on some kind of government assistance, “it’s going to be a struggle.
“I can rebuild. I’ve got resources. I can do stuff. I can gather stuff.”
Municipal spokesperson Eric Labadie said housing services is undertaking “a very large-scale relocation.
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“We are looking at as many options as we can to try and get everyone taken care of.”
Labadie said while there are 60 people being temporarily housed in hotel rooms around the municipality, there is still another issue to be tackled in the longer term.
“We don’t know how many of the people who are currently with family and friends will be able to stay with family and friends,” he said.
“We’re looking at pretty much every option within the community and even outside the community if it comes to that.”
Gus Amond, 66, another resident of the McNaughton Avenue apartment building, is taking being displaced in stride.
“There’s not much I can do about it,” Amond said from his Wallaceburg hotel room on Tuesday. “I’ve got a roof over my head, I’ve got food.”
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On Wednesday he was preparing to make the move to a Chatham retirement home.
While glad to be going into the accommodation, Amond is uncertain about his future living arrangements.
Being able to handle the $530 geared-to-income rent he was paying at 99 McNaughton Ave. W., Amond said he can’t afford the going rate the residents pay to live in a retirement home.
Stoddart said, “Not knowing what the tomorrow brings” causes her anxiety.
Her eyes welled with tears Wednesday when noting it was her 76th birthday and she had hoped to spend it with friends.
“I’m hoping that we can go back,” Stoddart said. “I’m glad there’s no lives lost (in the fire), but that was our home, that was our community.”
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