Club Valencia residents upset about not being able to return after fires
Fire is something the people who live at the Club Valencia Condominiums know all too well.
We brought you there last month.
This was the second fire in three months at the complex.
South Metro Fire Rescue says it's responded to six fires there since July of last year.
Now most of them have been determined to be accidental, but a small September fire has been charged as an arson and the November fire that caused all this damage is still under investigation.
People living there say one of the big problems during those fires is that the when something burns, smoke sits in the hallways causing more damage.
And they are tired of being woken up in the night by fire alarms.
Melanie Zarbock has been present for four fires at Club Valencia in the last several months: "I was asleep on the coach and I woke up to the smoke alarms and I was like, 'again? Really? This is happening again?'"
On Nov. 3, she had to jump from a third floor balcony to escape.
"The smoke was so bad, I was breathing it in standing on the balcony," she said. "So, I just yelled for help and I jumped and hoped for the best."
She ended up with a broken leg and ankle. Zarbock was one of three people taken to the hospital that time.
"It was a spinal fracture form here and then down to my ankle and I shattered my ankle," she said.
More than four months later, her leg has finally healed but she and other residents from 85 displaced units still have not been able to return.
"Nobody's been in to get a toothbrush, a change of clothes. They were left with nothing but what was in their cars or on their backs," Zarbock said.
In February, another large fire at the complex displaced 86 more residents. South Metro Fire Rescue says it was caused by a stove top.
"Half of the building is completely condemnded because of asbestos. We can't get in there, we can't access it. Like, the laundry, everything is closed off there. We can't even get to main office. It's closed so we can't get mail," Zarbock said.
To make matters worse, Zarbock says looting has become a problem. But there's been little to no communication from Club Valencia.
Now she and other residents are begging for answers.
"I feel like we should be able to sign a waiver, put on a mask and at least get a change of clothes or our stuff like sentimental things, important documents," she said. "But no one has even communicated with us when we can do that."
LCM Property Management, which runs Club Valencia, declined to comment for this story.
Zarbock says many of the displaced residents like herself have nowhere to go. She's been sleeping on a neighbors couch at Club Valencia ever since the November fire.
