A month after a fire displaced 834 people at The Cooper Apartments, residents protest for access to their homes — and answers.
FORT WORTH, Texas — It’s been 30 days since a massive 6-alarm fire engulfed part of The Cooper Apartments in Fort Worth, displacing 834 residents.
On Wednesday, dozens of those residents gathered outside the complex, protesting for answers. Many say they still can’t access their units, even those in the building or units that were never touched by flames.
“At this point, they’re locking me out of my home, and it’s illegal,” said Lauren Garcia, whose apartment was undamaged. “There’s nothing showing me that it’s unsafe for me to enter. So really, at this point, they’re locking me out of my home.”
While the fire was contained to one of the two buildings, tenants in unaffected units say they’ve been blocked from collecting belongings and forced to live in limbo.
Adding to the confusion, residents were recently notified that property management has changed. Cushman and Wakefield, the original management company, is no longer overseeing the complex. A new company, RPM Living, has taken over.
In a statement to WFAA, RPM Living’s The Cooper Management Team said:
“We want to once again thank our residents for their incredible patience and understanding as we’ve worked through this very challenging situation over the past several weeks. We are pleased to share that, after a considerable effort to get us to this point, we can now begin reaching out to each resident individually to discuss next steps relative to their personal belongings. That process will begin Monday 7/28 but, given the sheer size of our community, it will take some time to complete. In the meantime, we will continue to provide regular updates whenever there is new information to share, and our residents should know that they can continue to contact us at any time via phone or email or in person with any specific questions they might have. We are here to support them in any way that we can.”
Still, many displaced tenants say the promises feel hollow.
“RPM, I appreciate that,” Sid Telidevara said. “But it’s kind of too little, too late at this point. Get a move on.”
“We don’t want to be out here,” Miriam Zarza said. “But it’s like we don’t have a choice but to be out here demanding answers.”
Zarza lost her three pets in the fire and was told her unit is considered a total loss. All she wants is the remains of her two cats and one dog.
Tensions reached a boiling point during Wednesday’s protest, when one woman with her friends rushed past security guards and entered her upstairs apartment in Building 2, the undamaged building. She began tossing personal items, like her clothing, mattress, rug, ottomans and more, off her second-floor balcony, desperate to reclaim what she could.
“It’s been a month. It’s too, too far now,” the resident said, requesting to remain anonymous. “They have done nothing to help us. And if they’re not going to help me, I’m going to do it myself.”
She told WFAA she acted on impulse, running on adrenaline and anger.
“I shouldn’t have to do this to get the stuff I worked so hard for,” she said. “It’s just not fair.”
For now, displaced residents continue to wait — some patiently, some defiantly — for access to their homes and a timeline for recovery.
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