COLUMBIA, S.C. — After demands for water and heat at Colony Apartments, residents were evacuated on Tuesday night. Now, City of Columbia officials say residents may be able to return to their homes by the end of the week.
The Columbia-Richland Fire Department continued making rounds at the apartments on Wednesday to look for fire hazards and code violations.
Almost every apartment door had a citation explaining that the unit was deemed unsafe due to fire code violations.
Bleu Morton, whose sister lives in the complex, says the violations did not come as a surprise.
"They haven't put a fire alarm in there in two years," Morton explained. "The fire department walked in and asked if she had one in the room, and she said no, she hadn't had one in two years."
Morton says her sister took her children to one of the hotels that were offered to residents but said the conditions there were not an environment she wanted to keep her children in.
"There was blood on the walls, and they gave her like a twin bed for everyone so she decided to come back today and try to look for someplace else, but they're all full. They're not taking any more people," Morton said.
Also staying at one of the hotels was mother of three, Omeisha Johnson. When we arrived today, she said she didn't care how the room looked.
"I'm just happy we have heat and a place to take a shower," Johnson said with a laugh.
Johnson says she was told that her family can stay at the hotel until Friday, but is unsure if she even wants to return to Colony Apartments.
"I'm really trying to look for someplace else for us to go because I don't want to go back if we don't have to," Johnson said.
Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins says if residents want to return, crews are working to welcome them back by the end of the week.
"They've got the pipe fixed, now they are just covering it up," Jenkins said. "We're trying to get everyone back in by Thursday if we can."
Regarding the fire code violations, Jenkins said the apartments' management is supposed to take care of the violations to make sure each apartment has working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, as well.
The apartment complex will have time to fix the issues before the Fire Marshal comes out for another inspection.
Teams of police, code enforcement, and firefighters went around to make note of any code violations on Wednesday. The city says they are collecting a count of the violations to try to deem the property a nuisance.
News 19 will continue following this story and keep you updated on conditions at the apartment complex.