Oakland tenants without power for weeks after electrical fire
OAKLAND, Calif. - Ana Bolanos' apartment, like the entire 18-unit building in East Oakland, was dark and cold.
"Just the lights from the windows. If everything is closed, it's total darkness here," Bolanos said as she gave KTVU a tour of her unit on Friday.
On January 5, an electrical fire in the basement of the complex, located at 26th Avenue and East 20th Street, forced residents to evacuate. Although no units were damaged, Red Cross hotel vouchers ran out long ago. Now, two weeks later, there's still no gas, electricity, or hot water.
"It's always so cold and then also in the night it's so dark and we can't even charge our phone," said one of Bolanos' sons.
Tenants said that their pleas with the landlord for fixes have been either ignored or marked as "canceled" on the management company's app.
"I'm angry, frustrated, annoyed at the situation," said Bolanos.
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She, her husband, and their five children have been braving the cold in their unit, but at a cost.
"My kids' getting sick. Two of them have asthma. One of them got sick with pneumonia. I've been in a little container buying ice to keep his medicine in ice," the woman said.
On Friday, Bolanos and other tenants met with attorney Leah Simon-Weisberg to consider their options.
"The landlord's not communicating. It is unacceptable. They are responsible for putting them into alternative housing, period," Simon-Weisberg said.
She said that the landlord, so far, has only told tenants they don't have to pay the rent, which they've already paid, without addressing the larger issue.
"Tenants shouldn't be staying there for two weeks in the cold, with no refrigerators, and no hot water. There's somebody who had a baby during this period, who came home with a newborn," she said.
Tenant Alejandro Garcia said, "Food tends to go bad. And this happened at the beginning of the month. So a lot of people had already bought their groceries to get the month ready."
Landlords have not responded to KTVU's request for comment, and a co-founder of the management company hung up on reporter Henry Lee. The other co-founder sent a short email that read, "There was a fire at the property that damaged a portion of the building. Ownership and management are working to get the power back on as quickly as possible."
Henry Lee is a KTVU reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan.