Fire safety concerns force residents to vacate Springhill apartment building

Residents of an apartment building in Springhill, N.S., have been forced to leave their units indefinitely due to fire safety concerns.

The Municipality of Cumberland ordered the residents to vacate the Victoria Street building on Friday, in consultation with the provincial fire marshal.

The municipality says the building has 15 units, and 10 or 11 of them were occupied at the time, leaving residents scrambling to find a place to stay.

"They were essentially just given very brief notice to gather up their belongings and leave," said Dan Bedell with the Atlantic division of the Canadian Red Cross.

"We were able to assist a number of them with emergency lodging, at least for the next few days."

Bedell said the Red Cross found places for five tenants to stay, and is also providing meals and transportation.

Two other tenants he is aware of are staying with relatives or friends.

Risks too great

Inspectors had previously discovered what the municipality's CAO, Greg Herrett, described as "serious deficiencies" from a fire safety perspective in August.

The building was placed on a fire watch, which allowed people to continue living there under conditions. 

The watch required the building to be monitored 24 hours a day by someone hired at the owner's expense, Herrett says.

At the time, the municipality also issued the owner with an "order to take action" on the fire safety issues that were identified.

No details about the problems found have been released.

However, the municipality says it was not satisfied with the progress on rectifying them. 

It said the building owner had been in touch with fire inspectors last week to say they were going to end the fire watch.  

That is when the municipality determined the risks were too great for people to continue living there without constant surveillance and the order to vacate was issued.

Building owner declines comment

The Nova Scotia government said the Department of Community Services is working with the Red Cross to make sure everyone affected by the order has temporary shelter.

In a statement, the province said the municipality's order was made under the Nova Scotia Fire Safety Act with the approval of the Office of the Fire Marshal. 

It said there was significant risk involved for the occupants and the order to vacate was issued after all other avenues were explored. 

Allen Seto, a spokesperson for the numbered company that owns the building, could not say if it will fix the issues to allow people to move back.

Seto said it would not be fair to comment as the company is going through some changes and working through a few things.