The County of Simcoe and the Red Cross, along with the Town of Bradford West-Gwillumbury, have been working together to help Bradford residents left homeless by a devastating apartment fire last month.
During Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, County of Simcoe councillors received a staff report regarding emergency support provided by the County of Simcoe Emergency Management and Emergency Social Services (ESS) departments to Bradford residents displaced by the fire at 114 Holland St. West on March 22.
While the fire displaced 118 individuals from 79 units, 45 families are currently receiving supports such as lodging, food, clothing, transportation, and specialized needs like medical devices.
In the first month since the fire, the county estimates it has spent about $300,000 on the supports.
During Tuesday’s meeting, Ramara Mayor Basil Clarke asked if there was any way to re-coup some of the costs through insurance.
“We are going to be looking at recovering all types of costs. Most of the tenants did have content insurance, which doesn’t cover the cost of displacement through something like this,” said chief administrative officer Mark Aitken. “Generally, building owners would carry such insurance. In this particular case they didn’t have that full insurance coverage. We will try to recover through all existing funding that is available to offset these costs.”
“But at the end of the day, we need to make sure these residents are looked after appropriately,” said Aitken.
The County of Simcoe and the Canadian Red Cross, in partnership with the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury, are currently administering the supports.
After the fire, 11 occupants of the building were transported to hospital, and four remain in hospital with one in serious condition. The fire has affected a total of 23 children, 67 adults and 28 seniors.
According to the April 13 staff report received by councillors, the Office of the Fire Marshal has deemed the building unsafe, and access to the building or any of the units is prohibited. Residents are not permitted to access their apartments to retrieve any of their personal belongings.
Structural experts are suggesting an additional two to four weeks are required just to evaluate the building condition.
A process has begun to fully assess the scope of the damage to the property, and to identify the work required to remediate the building. The process must be completed before reconstruction efforts can begin.
The estimated time that residents could remain dislocated is between six and 18 months, according to the staff report.
Under the current Memorandum of Agreements for Emergency Social Services and Red Cross Support during an emergency, all eligible expenses to support the situation will be invoiced to the County of Simcoe.
