WINDERMERE, Fla. – Orange County condemned a Windermere apartment building Wednesday, days after a presumed lightning strike sparked a fire at the building.
“I was crying so much,” Lizelba Garcia, a tenant at Buena Vista Place, said about the days following the lightning strike. “My life is here.”
Garcia, who has lived at the apartment complex for 14 years, was at church with her family Sunday when she learned about the fire. Her Ring camera footage showed firefighters trying to contain the flames.
“The ceiling keeps falling,” Garcia said Wednesday.
Her place is one of about 20 apartment units with significant damage from the fire and subsequent response.
Although Garcia has been overwhelmed by the damage the fire caused, she said most of her frustration is related to her apartment complex’s management.
“[Management] have not been consistent with the information that they are giving us,” she said.
Garcia and other tenants told News 6 that they were initially told by Buena Vista Place management that they had seven days to gather their belongings once Orange County declared the building condemned.
Tuesday, though, Garcia said management called tenants in to say that they would only have 24 hours to vacate after the condemned notice was posted.
“They have not been there for us,” Garcia said of management
News 6 made multiple attempts to reach apartment management--including by walking into the leasing office Wednesday--but we have not yet received a response to our questions.
A spokesperson for Orange County told News 6 that the county’s Building Safety Division deemed the building “unsafe for occupancy” due to damage to the life safety systems.
“For occupancy to be restored, an engineer’s report must be submitted and necessary repairs completed with the required permits,” the spokesperson said.
In a subsequent statement addressing our questions about management’s apparent ultimatum to tenants, the county spokesperson sent the following:
“Building Safety did not give any timeframe for the vacating of the affected unsafe to occupy structure.
If there was a 24- hour deadline, it did not come from our building division."