Residents relocated following fire at Oakland senior facility
OAKLAND -- Eighty-five seniors in Oakland won't be able to return home anytime soon. They were evacuated in a four-alarm fire from their senior housing facility near Lake Merritt on Friday.
KPIX has learned that some of the evacuees are temporarily staying at another senior facility, some are staying with family members and others are staying at a nearby hotel.
"We'd obviously all like to be back in our apartments and all be together but, I think, there's a sense of what's happening is the best that can happen," said evacuee Emmy Fearn.
Fearn remains positive despite a lot of uncertainties about her housing situation.
She is one of 85 residents evacuated from the Grand Lake Gardens senior housing complex after a four-alarm fire broke out just before 6 a.m. Friday.
Even though the fire burned the fifth floor, firefighters said almost all of the apartments had water damage. Some units were flooded.
"We had water coming through the light fixtures, the roof," Fearn said.
Human Good is a non-profit organization that owns Grand Lake Gardens. The company is still assessing the damage and hasn't said how long residents will be out of their homes.
Building experts said, if workers have to replace sheet rock and flooring, it could take weeks, perhaps months.
"We know that there's a possibility that it'll be an extended period of time, could be a month, possibly. We're hoping it's not. But we just don't know and we've got to learn to be comfortable with that. There's not a lot of choice," Fearn said.
Seniors who need around-the-clock care or who have mobility issues, like 84-year-old Elizabeth Porter, are staying at Piedmont Gardens in Oakland, which is also owned by Human Good.
She said it's been tough since she evacuated with just her purse and the clothes she was wearing. Residents are not yet allowed to return home to retrieve possessions.
"I'm regretting that I didn't pack anything. I have my basic meds," Porter said.
There isn't enough vacant space at Piedmont Gardens so the non-profit placed Fearn and roughly 20 to 30 evacuees at a nearby hotel.
"We're hanging in there. We've been extremely well taken care of by our staff. Several of them stayed with us," Fearn said.
Firefighters continue to investigate what caused the fire but Oakland's fire chief said it appeared to be an electrical fire that started in a fifth floor unit.
