The Montgomery County government and owner Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County allowed residents to occupy the 15-story Westwood Tower apartments for two months without an operating fire alarm system. County officials have now condemned the high-rise building at 5401 Westbard Avenue in Bethesda after an electrical fire brought the existing violations to light this past weekend, and further damaged the building's electrical systems. In lieu of a functioning fire alarm system, HOC had posted signs inside the tower instructing residents to "evacuate and call 911" in case of a fire. The signs did not advise how residents who might be asleep during a fire would be aware one had broken out, nor how their neighbors in the approximately 200 apartments would be notified on more than a dozen floors.
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| Sign posted inside Westwood Tower after the building's fire alarm system went down on November 9, 2023; it was never repaired, and the building was condemned after a fire on January 6, 2024 |
After the fire alarm system broke down on November 9, 2023, the HOC stationed personnel in the building lobby to be on-duty in case of a fire. It was unclear how one person could physically cover 15 floors (not to mention without an elevator),and knock on hundreds of doors, in the few seconds that might be needed for all residents to safely evacuate. One resident reported that these employees were sometimes seen dozing off in the lobby. Residents report that the HOC never informed them of a timeline for restoration of the fire alarm system. "Fire officials have repeatedly been called to the building because of the lack of a fire alarm," one resident said, and that the building has been "cited repeatedly because of a lack of fire alarm."
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| Generator outside the building, which has no power; residents have been relocated |
The insanity of the idea of one person being able to function as a human fire alarm for a 15-story building became clear this past Saturday night, when a transformer blew inside the building. Several residents I spoke to reported that not only were there no fire alarms sounding, but the backup "human fire alarm" in the lobby did not contact any of them. They smelled and saw smoke, and self-evacuated, alerting other residents on their way out of the building. One resident who lives on a floor that did not initially have smoke only learned the building was on fire when a friend who lived on a smoke-filled floor called them to say there was a fire, and to get out.
Residents report that they were left freezing in the building from 6:00 PM Saturday night, until the building was condemned and evacuated 24 hours later. Power in the building was limited, and there was no heat at all. Security functions to keep non-residents and potential criminals out of the building were inoperable.
To top it off, the HOC initially refused to provide alternative shelter to residents, advising them to instead make a claim on their own apartment insurance to cover the cost of hotel rooms. As the details began to reach the public a day later, Montgomery County agencies announced they were providing off-site shelter. The HOC said the residents were being moved to hotels in the area. Residents were told that they could be displaced from the building for as long as three weeks.
There is concern among residents, given the County's inaction regarding the fire alarm outage in the preceding weeks and the building's ownership being politically affliated with the elected officials who appoint and oversee them, that repairs will be allowed to drag on. Last night, two extremely loud generators roared outside the darkened apartment tower. There was no visible activity at the building.
Residents of HOC properties have long pointed out issues regarding health and safety in their buildings. Those complaints were backed up by the findings of federal inspections, which found 75% of the units they inspected failed to meet federal standards. It now appears the agency was allowed to violate the County's fire code for two months, by operating a building without functioning smoke and fire alarms to alert occupants.
The HOC acquired the building several years ago with grand plans to construct more buildings and garages on the property. When those plans were stymied by protests that arose when the agency announced it intended to build a parking garage on top of the Moses African Cemetery at the rear of the property - where many of the graves were desecrated during the building's construction in the late 1960s, the HOC then attempted to sell it to a private developer. That sale was temporarily blocked by a Montgomery County court injunction, and the buyer backed out of the transaction. The dispute - that the HOC tried to sell the land with the cemetery without notifying the descendants of those interred there, in violation of Maryland law - will be ruled on by the Maryland Supreme Court later this year.
The County and the HOC are only fortunate that Saturday's fire was not more serious. This could have been a catastrophic disaster, had a fast-moving fire engulfed the building. Elected officials have yet to criticize the situation that existed at the property; in fact, the County Councilmember who represents the area has so far tweeted only praise for County agencies.
24 comments:
That building has been operating with no active fire alarm for months, not since November
Just as well run as the county. Don't like the current wave of crime? Elrich has addressed these concerns by making sure we're "salt-wise".
11:23: Do you recall the approximate date when the problem first came to your attention?
We can afford it, and any lawsuits and liability! We are a rich county and just need to tax a little more. No big deal!
Not the approximate date but this has been ongoing for more than two months and they never informed tenants when it’ll get fixed. It worked for a while and then it stopped working. Elevator wasn’t working for a while either but that was fixed.
Great coverage. Journalists must call attention to the regulatory capture of government especially for local issues! I'd like to know the names of the officials involved.
This is a scandal, given that a resident died at the Arrive Silver Spring highrise in a fire only months ago.
Thanks for the updates. This is the only site for local news updates, that I can't get anywhere else. Usually some of the opinions are way off from mine but in a situation like this I'm grateful for the aggressive and thorough reporting. Negligence can kill people and the county needs to be held accountable.
The "COUNTY." Think about that & let it sink in...
The Arrive Silver Spring incident was entirely different as that was an actual fire in an occupied apartment, while this was just a transformer failure with smoke migration.
Montgomery County officials who manage the buildings the county owns have been negligent and have shown disregard for the residents of Westwood tower. The fire alarm was not working for months. There was absolutely no attempt to immediately evacuate the rest of the building when it was known there was an issue on Saturday. People found out about the fire emergency because they lost power and went to the lobby, and not because they got a notification to evacuate immediately. There has been NO communication sent to the residents. No calls, no texts, no notifications on the tenants website, no replies to emails, no answer to phone calls. Residents have not been given an approximate time for repairs and/or when they could go back to the building. Westwood Tower management office is not answering to insurance carrier questions. The message they put on the door is not sufficient. Right?
They should fire everyone at HOC along with a full audit of money spent. The council also has responsibility but as usual when something goes wrong, it's like deer in the headlights.
HOC also has a lot of dirty laundry around Bethesda. They own several units in various buildings, some of which cost over 400K for a 1BR. The tenants placed in these units aren't screened and have cost individual buildings thousands of dollars in damages which is only occasionally covered by HOC. The rest comes out of the owners in that building.
If you're a landlord in the County, they will come after you for any little violation and fine heavily.
But when it's the County as landlord, they don't follow their own rules it seems. Lovely.
The HOC is a total disaster of an organization. The lack of oversight is no surprise there - I live in another Bethesda condo that is majority owner occupied. The HOC purchased a condo or two and put a resident in there with serious mental illness that truly terrorized the entire building with stalking, frequent police visits, racial and religious rants, political arguments with others and so on. One of my neighbors commented on repeated harassments based on their religion as just one of dozens of issues one individual from the HOC brought to a peaceful community. Truly, the list goes on and while the HOA and Management companies calls and requests to the HOC went unanswered. What more would you expect from the HOC?
7:14 this potentially could have been much worse than Arrive. No fire alarms in a high rise? Dozens of people and animals could have died if a fire broke out.
And this building is controlled by the county. Inexcusable.
@6:19 "If you're a landlord in the County, they will come after you for any little violation and fine heavily."
I used to live in a small rental building (privately owned), and the county housing inspectors were relentless! The management was very responsive even when the inspectors weren't around.
I'm not saying that doing comprehensive inspections is bad (just the opposite -- they're important), but there seem to be a lot of inconsistencies.
@2:11 Dig a little deeper on Arrive managed properties. Combined with the current MC council & HOC, it's a matter of time before a significant loss of life happens in one of these buildings.
My daughter moved from an apartment in SS with an unruly 'Section × whatever' tenant next door to a 'better' place here in Bethesda. Guess what happened? She's got another neighbor just the same, but worse! Same county same policies!
3:48 PM They spent a huge sum of money realigning Westbard Avenue, a road leading to nowhere, but they fell short when it came to its nearby residents.
When the Council says we need more "housing", they mean building more slums like these, not reasonably priced houses.
Let's just say the butcher and cake baker at the Westbard Giant aren't getting keys to one of the new EYA luxury townhomes.
As for HOC, if you look at the lottery winners for new homes,they are 99% new immigrants.
Sussex House, Whitehall or one of the newer hi-rise condos? I live on Battery btw and I'm just curious.
First of all, that “cake baker” and “butcher” don’t make enough to be eligible to live in these “luxury” homes, just like a teacher who teaches your kids (if you have any) would make enough income to qualify to live in this EYA. I don’t think the HOC does lottery anyway! Besides, this county has gone down the drain within the year.
You're right, it's not the cake baker or teacher that's in the setaside
Having managed market rate and affordable apartment properties professionally, I am appalled to read of the conditions at Westwood Towers. To leave a hazard such as this unaddressed for 2 months is inexcusable.
It’s very fortunate that no injuries or loss of life occurred.
I am wondering how Westwood Towers’ insurer is handling this? My guess would be that there might be exclusions on damages related to management negligence. If nothing else, this event will raise premiums and/or reduce coverages for the property when the current policy expires.
I’ve heard over the years that HOC has a very poor reputation for property management. The event at Westwoid Towers illustrates this.
One correction for @3:48: Regency Centers, the owner of the new Westwood Square development, built and paid for the realignment of Westbard Avenue as a development condition. The taxpayers did *not* fund this project.
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