Families hoping to salvage items weeks after North Attleboro fire frustrated by lack of access

Dozens of families who survived a fire in North Attleboro, Massachusetts are frustrated they still haven't been allowed to see their units and collect any salvageable belongings three weeks after the fire.

The fire ripped through Hawthorne Village condos on May 11, forcing families to stay in hotels, motels and with other family members.

"It's horrible, it's your worst nightmare," said Ellen Gallagher who is displaced and lost everything in the fire. "I cried for five hours that night like my eyes were swollen shut, that's when it hit us, the adrenaline was gone, you're just devastated realizing that you don't know when you're going to get in, what the results are, you no longer have a home."

Collin Ferranti went back to get his mail, but he would rather get inside his unit which wasn't charred to get personal documents, photos and mementos.

"It's sad to see because I've lived here for 15 years for pretty much my whole life and it's like this now," said Ferranti. "Now we're in a hotel and again getting no word on the apartment, the whole situation and it's just frustrating."

The building was turned over to a property management company.

Neighbors shared an email with WBZ they got from the company on Friday saying, "The building has been deemed to be in an unsafe state by the local authority having jurisdiction, due to the physical building damage from fire and water."

"Our goal is to facilitate entry for the unit owners and/or their insurance companies, to inspect their units," the email added.

The company said in the email it hopes sometime next week there'll be a date when people can go inside their homes, a date that can't come soon enough for displaced families.

"The unknown is what's hard, I'm ready to move on and close this chapter but I can't yet until I have full closure here," said Gallagher.

Families were told the goal is to do the safe escorts in one day during 2-hour windows.

WBZ reached out to the city and property management company, we are still waiting to hear back.