Three days after a fire evacuated the east tower at the Windermere apartment community, residents are still unable to go back into their homes. A Tuesday meeting was held for residents to address when they might return, but for Daniel Kenny, he said the answers aren’t coming quick enough.
"It's really hard not to have the communication and we're still not getting any communication now from the apartment complex other than we can't go in and they don't know when we'll be able to go in," he said.
The fire happened on the first floor Saturday morning. One man, Michael Craig Mitchell was killed. It was his 70th birthday. Kenny’s brother Matthew Kenny was one of the 13 people taken to the hospital.
"He’s a jokester,” Kenny said. "He gets along well with people."
But things have been different since the fire. Kenny said his brother has been heavily sedated since Saturday when the hot smoke burned his lungs. The two were finally able to communicate Tuesday morning.
"I was able to ask him some questions,” Kenny said. “He was able to shake his head 'yes' and 'no' but that's about it. I'm not sure what you can do. Once he's out where does he go?"
It's the main question residents told 9NEWS they'd like answered. Andy Boin represents the owners of Windermere and tried to clear some things up at the Tuesday meeting. He told 9NEWS he wants to make sure residents' questions are answered.
"We have taken air samples from throughout the building and given them to the lab,” he said. “The lab is now reviewing them."
Boin said once the results are in, they get handed over to the city of Littleton's inspection department.
"They decide when the building can be occupied again," he said.
Boin couldn't give an exact date on when that could happen. But right now for Daniel, it's one hurdle at a time. Kenny said his brother turns 60 in a few weeks and he's hoping to have him out of the hospital in time to celebrate.
"I love my brother, I hate to see him hurting," Kenny said. "You want to see him get better."
Since the building was built in the 1970's it's not required to have sprinklers. It’s grandfathered into the current code. But if there are renovations because of the fire - it may have to install them