COLUMBIA, S.C. — Last week, two residents at Allen Benedict Court apartments died in their apartments.
As the investigation into their deaths continued, the fire department and police completed inspections throughout the rest of the complex.
A woman who claims her Allen Benedict apartment tested positive for carbon monoxide during that inspection, spoke with WLTX on Friday.
“Losing our place and stuff has made it even worse. So, I mean-- my kids are without a lot of stuff, they don't have too much. It's hard, I'm having to walk back and forth to get my daughter from school all the way over on the other side, it's just rough,” said the woman at her temporary home.
The resident doesn't want to be identified on camera or online and said her unit at the Allen Benedict complex tested positive for gas after the two deaths last week.
“The guy was telling us it tested high for gas and the leak. When they came in all they did was turn off the gas, they didn't ask us to leave or anything, they just left us like that,” she told WLTX.
The woman claims the fire department told her the apartment tested positive for a leak at 2am on Friday morning, but wasn't told to leave her apartment with her two kids till later in the day.
She said she did not know the two men that died, but her apartment had its own share of maintenance issues when she moved in.
“It was already a mess. I mean I was having trouble with the electricity. I didn't have that for almost a month. They had to come back and bring a new refrigerator due to a leak. I had toilet problems where it would just back up the whole house, it was horrible,” she added, saying she had lived at the complex for almost a year.
The resident’s two kids are now without clothes for school because they left the apartment in a hurry and in chaos last week.
She added that the confusion with her current housing means the school bus does not come pick up her daughter, meaning they walk to and from school each day.
They’re all living with family and she claims she hasn't heard anything from the housing authority.
“I just want things to be better for me and my kids,” she said.
So far, the only help she’s collected was the 31-day COMET bus card the Housing Authority provided.
On Friday of this week, the Columbia Housing Authority said residents would not be allowed back to Allen Benedict.