A fire Saturday night at the Westwood Tower apartments at 5401 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda caused or revealed major problems with the building's electrical system. Montgomery County condemned the apartment building yesterday, and is assisting residents with relocation until the electrical system can be repaired and brought up to code. The building had only partial power after the fire, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer. All residents had been evacuated by 8:00 PM last night, Piringer said. Westwood Tower is owned and operated by the Montgomery County Housing Opportunities Commission, which will be defending itself in an unrelated lawsuit regarding the cemetery on the property this morning at the Maryland Supreme Court in Annapolis.
I’m a resident at this building- another major problem that occurred is that for the past 3 months, the building has not had a working fire alarm system, so when the electrical surge caused smoke on Saturday night, residents were not alerted by any alarm system to evacuate the building. I knew to exit because I saw fire trucks outside my window.
ReplyDeleteUnless I'm mistaken, didn't the HOC sell that building a few years ago?
ReplyDeleteI was informed the same that HOC sold the bldg
DeleteHOLY cow, that's huge. My cynical mind immediately thought, "This will give the building owners insurance incentive to tear it down and build something bigger," even though I have zero idea how such a thing would work or if it bears even the slightest bit of real-world possibility.
ReplyDeleteStill, me, me, me aside, that's really big news and a gigantic inconvenience to the people living there. Robert, how many families/people are affected by this?
Relief costs for the tenants borne by the County will be dwarfed by the waste and incompetence in administering it and repairing the building, mark my words.
ReplyDeleteAnother opportunity to exploit.
8:37: HOC's sale to Charger Ventures was blocked by a court injunction; that is the case that was heard by the Maryland Supreme Court this morning.
ReplyDelete11:00: There are about 200 apartments in the building.
Holy cow is right! OMG!! Horrible news -- I hope everyone is okay. MoCo Housing Authority does regular, routine comprehensive apartment inspections -- where have they been?
ReplyDelete@8:07 -- Thanks for the additional information. I'm so sorry you and the other residents have to go through this. It seems inexcusable to me.
Stick 'em all in with the thousands of illegal immigrants being housed courtesy of MoCo taxpayers.
ReplyDelete@11:0id0AM It's not cynical at all. "Aldon/Brown Dev" is doing just that exact thing on Battery Lane with their "sale" of The Glens & 8200 to "HOC" and subsequently soon to be using slumlord MT company UN-Accredited according to the BBB, "ResONE" and will let at least one bldg I know of (My bldg) fall into disrepair & danger knowingly & complicit with continuing to lease MPDU/Sec8 EBT families that leave water running causing actual trickle down FLOODS & leaving stovetop burners ON causing gas fumes & leaks requiring MCFD to be called to the building twice in 2 days (apt.104) & (apt.109). While us longtime residents paying full rent breathing fumes & mopping up water waiting for the 5 year window of the wrecking ball, Brown Development is simply rejoicing in their future sketch plans for re-imagining the Battery Lane District.
ReplyDeleteGetting difficult to afford the care and feeding of so many... now it's housing that's being disrespected too. When does it stop?
ReplyDeleteLet's see, 200 families displaced out of a building that's been condemned now put into hotels. Owners of the building, (essentially taxpayers), now have a building in disrepair still under the same government management. Would be interesting to see how the money allocated on this building was spent
ReplyDelete