H eadlines
Oak Hill Residents Displaced, Traumatized by Fire
L OCA L
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
JOAN RAYFIELD STILL
can’t go home.

The Oak Hill Terrace
Apartment resident was one
of 150 people displaced after
a two-alarm fire damaged the
Penn Valley complex’s south
building on May 24. She was also
one of three people injured and
hospitalized during the blaze.

“This was the most devas-
tating thing that ever happened
to me in my life, and I feel like
I’m never going to get over it.

It really scarred me, physically
and mentally,” she said.

Her apartment is uninhab-
itable. When she went back to
the building at the beginning
of the month, she was shocked
at how bad the damage was.

“There were no walls, no
ceiling, nothing,” she said.

Four months after the fire,
some of the physical damage to
the building has been repaired,
and residents, many of whom
are Jewish, are slowly beginning
to move back. Others will have
to wait much longer before their
homes are safe to inhabit.

“We have made significant
progress and residents have
begun to move back into their
homes,” property manager
Gary van Niekirk said in an
email, adding that he couldn’t
comment further on post-fire
issues. Susan Baron, an adver-
tising account executive at the
Jewish Exponent who lives in
the damaged building, said
Oak Hill’s property manage-
ment sent out a newsletter that
claimed half the displaced
residents would be able to
return at the end of September.

She is not one of them.

Her unit was contami-
nated by smoke and failed two
hygienist inspections before
passing a third on Sept. 25. More
cleaning and repairs are needed
before she can move back in.

David Lane and his wife
Patty Lane moved back into
the building Sept. 26 after
living in another apartment
building they found through
their insurance company.

Their Oak Hill unit sustained
minimal damage, but it still
had to undergo several clean-
ings and inspections before it
was declared safe to inhabit.

“First, they make you get
someone to move all your
furniture into the middle of
the room, and they clean the
Firefighters at the scene of the
Oak Hill fire on May 24
Photo by Susan Baron
The second floor of the building
Photo by David Lane
ceiling, the walls and the furni-
ture, if necessary. Then you
have to put it back and they
clean the middle of the room,
and then they come in and they
start testing,” David Lane said.

He said that while units like
his on the fourth floor have
been declared safe, the second
floor was almost completely
destroyed. “To this day, if you walk in
there you can take the elevator
up to the second floor, and it’s
cinder block. It’s just cinder
block. Some of those people
won’t be moving back for
another six months.”
He added that many of his
neighbors are afraid to come back.

“It’s emotionally distressing,
and there’s a number of people
that may not be able to move
back to Oak Hill,” he said.

Resident Susan Gilmore
said she was traumatized by the
fire and feels anxious when she
has to return to the building.

She started seeing a psychia-
trist and taking medication for
intense anxiety.

“I’ve never had anxiety like
that, ever. And I’m still suffering
from that,” she said. “If I had a
situation with anxiety, I knew
exactly how to deal with it, but
this is way beyond that.”
She stayed with her daughter’s
family for six weeks after the fire
See Oak Hill, Page 21
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