Displaced residents of Dartmouth fire still struggling to find homes

A devastating fire that happened in May left one woman dead and over 100 people without a home. Six months later, many are still struggling to find homes. 

“It has been a very interesting six months. I lost everything in the fire and did not have insurance, so I have spent the last six months trying to put a home back together again,” said Sarah Parker, a former resident and media relation person representing the residents.

“We here in Halifax don't have a lot of low income housing and when you flood the market with an additional 150 people looking for a place, the options were not a lot to choose from,” she said in an interview with News 95.7's Matt Brand. 

Parker was able to find a one bedroom apartment, but many are still stuck in limbo. 

Currently, 81 Primrose Street in Dartmouth is uninhabitable, says Parker, who lives across the street from her old building. 

“In doing the renovations to fix it up after the fire, there were several different contaminants found, besides mould, and total remediation had to be done in the building,” she explained.

“So the entire building basically had to be stripped down to the studs and at this time, nobody has been allowed to move in, and from the looks of it from the outside, I cant say that they'll be moving in any time soon.” 

Many residents were told they would be able to move in within six to eight weeks after the fire, and were told to keep their belongings in their apartments. Since then, their belongings have been moved to another facility without the resident's knowledge. Many are still trying to locate their belongings before the cold winter months set it.

“A lot of people also lost all of their holiday decorations,” said Parker. “To go out a brand new artificial Christmas tree or buy lights and Christmas decorations, that's a lot of money when you know that somewhere you already have this stuff bought and its being stored but don't know where it is.” 

Parker and others have had to compete with the rest of Halifax for items in food banks and clothing banks, which she says had been a struggle too. 

“There's just not enough to go around.” 

After the fire, many residents, including Parker, signed a class action lawsuit against the Halifax Regional Municipality, the Halifax Water Commission, the owner's of the apartment building, and the company that manages it. So far, more than 55 people have signed the lawsuit, said Parker. 

The lawsuit has yet to be officiated by a judge, but Parker is hoping that will happen in the next two months, when a deadline will also be set for people to join the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit alleges that there wasn't enough time for people to get out of the building in a timely fashion, resulting in more fire damage. There was also a lack of notification about the fire, says parker, who's smoke detector didn't go off until her hallway was thick with smoke. 

“We have the evidence to show that at different points in the building, smoke alarms were not going off, the fire alarms were not loud enough to be heard in the apartment. There was a severe lack of communication that the building needed to be evacuated now. So it took about 45 minutes before everybody knew about the fire, and was having a chance to get out of the building,” she said.

The four defendants listed in the class action have all retained lawyers. 

The lawsuit has yet to be officiated by a judge, but Parker is hoping that will happen in the next two months, when a deadline will also be set for people to join the lawsuit.