Demolition on fire-ravaged Avalon at Edgewater to start Friday

tariq zehawi/staff writer

A massive fire at Avalon at Edgewater in January left some 500 people homeless.

EDGEWATER Demolition of a luxury apartment complex that partially burned down after a massive fire in January is scheduled to start Friday and likely will last three months or longer, according to an email sent to former tenants Wednesday.

AvalonBay Communities, Inc., the owner of the complex, said in the email, obtained by The Record, that a crew will demolish the amenities building this week, while work on the residential areas will start as early as Monday. The company stated its belief that only a small portion of items belonging to tenants will be reclaimed, as those objects are mixed in the debris with burned and water damaged construction materials and arent easily discernible.

AvalonBay also reiterated its position that tenants wont be allowed onsite during the work. Residents last week launched a petition on Change.org, demanding they be involved in the salvaging process, including having representatives oversee the work as it takes place. They also asked that another group of residents be allowed to sift through the debris at a transfer station to look for salvageable items.

We want to remind you that the local officials have declared the building to be an unsafe structure, AvalonBay stated in its email, which a company spokesman confirmed was sent Wednesday. As a result, for safety reasons, the current expectation is that there will only be very limited worker personnel access to the actual debris in its current state both during removal and sorting.

AvalonBay declined further comment beyond what was stated in the email.

Despite the announcement, the organizer of the residents petition claimed victory Wednesday, citing the 1,184 signatures that had been collected.

Because of your signatures, we have been successful in persuading Avalon to hire a salvaging company to work at the site where we all lost our belongings, organizer Heather Jackson wrote on the Change.org site.

Unfortunately, AvalonBay opted not to allow residents the opportunity to be directly involved in the salvaging and will not disclose a list of specific items they are going to salvage for, but this is still a victory for us nonetheless, she added.

Original post:
Demolition on fire-ravaged Avalon at Edgewater to start Friday