Canfield apartment residents await repairs, re-entry after fire

By ELISE FRANCO

Plans to move residents back into the apartments are moving slowly but surely.

CANFIELD — It’s still up in the air as to when residents of The Villager apartment complex will be able to move back in.

A fire that started July 28 while a tenant was cooking inside his apartment displaced 42 tenants. The blaze was contained to that apartment, but smoke damage was widespread through the Fairground Boulevard building, which has 56 units.

Jeffrey Uroseva, chief building official, said the building is structurally sound, and smoke-smell removal will be the major task ahead.

“I’d say 80 percent of the occupants can move back in once they get the place cleaned up,” he said. “That timetable should be submitted to me from contractor or building owner, and that has not been done yet.”

Uroseva said drawings need to be supplied so that he can see exactly in what order the apartments can be reoccupied.

“We do understand people want to get back in, but we also want to be able to deem the building safe,” he said. “The ball is in [the building owner’s] court so-to-speak.”

Since the fire, building manager Joe Clark said some residents have been allowed to return to collect what they will need until they are able to move back in, but only when he is present.

“We’ve put padlocks on the doors so that no one can come in and vandalize,” he said. “We have to protect the tenants interest and valuables.”

Clark said his main concern is getting the contractors back in and doing everything he can to get his tenants back in their homes soon.

“They’re worried, especially the older ones, because their relatives are out of town, and they have no place to go,” he said.

“The [building] owners are currently speaking to the insurance companies to get estimates.”

Canfield Joint Fire District Chief Bill Jones said none of the building will be reopened for occupancy until the fire department and the Mahoning County Building Inspector sign off on it.