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It may be weeks, or longer, before displaced residents can reoccupy their apartments after collapse in Hawthorne, N.J.

Some residents displaced after partial collapse in Hawthorne, N.J.
Some residents displaced after partial collapse in Hawthorne, N.J. 02:06

HAWTHORNE, N.J. - Some residents in New Jersey are either displaced or left in the cold following a partial collapse at an apartment complex. 

Sunday's floor collapse crushed multiple boilers providing heat to other buildings. 

"It's been a hell of day, the past two days," Anthony Calderon said. 

Bags of personal belongings fill his car. 

"This wouldn't have happened if someone did their job correctly," Calderon said. 

Calderon was packing up the Hawthorne apartment where his mother has lived for more that 20 years. She was forced to evacuate, with the rest of the building's tenants, Sunday afternoon due to a partial collapse that crushed nine boilers in the basement. 

"A lot of rain and... mismanagement of how this was run," resident Regina Marns said. 

Displaced residents living in Building E at the Hawthorne Garden apartment complex, like Marns, were allowed back inside Monday to grab their items. Marns said she and the others were offered the option by management to move into a vacant apartment. 

"I just got another apartment over there... it's actually much nicer," Marns said. 

But for those living in the three buildings nearby, it's a much different story. They aren't being forced to leave, but due to the loss of the boilers, they're now left without heat, gas, and soon-to-be water, to prevent pipes from bursting. 

"What ran through your head when you found out you're going to have to find somewhere new to live for several weeks?" CBS New York's Zinnia Maldonado said. 

"We are still processing it. I'm trying to make phone calls for insurance," Vickie Aldea said. 

"This is the type of thing you see in New York City, where buildings are 150 years old. Not a building built in the '60s," Michael Aldea said. 

Mayor John Lane said the complex's architect and engineer were on-site Monday and estimate it will take 4-6 weeks before utilities will be turned back on. 

"I would hope that we could go into all the buildings, at least the basements, to make sure for the safety of everybody living in those units, that it's safe," Lane said. 

Lane said his office has reached out to New Jersey's Department of Community Affairs to see if the department will send state inspectors, or the borough can utilize local inspectors to, as he mentioned, take a look inside the basement of all these units. 

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