COLUMBIA, S.C. — A long series of weeks has become even longer as hundreds of residents at the Colony Apartments are still waiting to get back into their homes.
Heat and water have been restored but a new group of issues is causing further problems. Columbia-Richland Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins says gas leaks are the latest concern.
"As we began [today] it was greater than 10," Jenkins said.
As city crews have been making inspections, they have also been helping solve the code violation issues as well to make sure the units are "clear". Jenkins explained this means the apartment has water, heat, smoke detectors, and CO detectors as well.
On Friday, 119 out of 300 units were deemed safe enough for residents to come back to. One of those residents is 75-year-old Willie Gary who spent the last few nights away from his comfy couch and other belongings.
"It was an adjustment area... you don't know you're attached to something until someone takes it away from you," Gary explained.
Although Willie gets to go back to his home, the other 60% of the homes in the Colony Apartments still remain evacuated.
We reached out to SC Housing about the upkeep of the property, and they sent back this statement saying, "Our monitoring visits include physical onsite inspections of... Occupied or vacant units, common areas, offices, grounds, and administrative and resident files. Our compliance monitoring team completed its most recent report for the colony apartments on November 22, 2022, with no outstanding physical deficiencies noted."
Officials with the Fire Department say they are not called upon to help with these inspections by SC Housing but are glad they are doing inspections now. Columbia-Richland Fire Department hopes to have people back inside their homes by next week.
The city provided dinner to residents last night and tells us that they will continue being a resource for people in the colony apartments for as long as they are needed. Apartment management is still providing residents with hotel rooms until it is safe for them to go home.
Crews say they will work through the weekend until all units are safe.