A Denton condo owner says the fire that destroyed his home could have been prevented if neighboring condos had cleared their trash.
Pavan Kandura and his three roommates are staying at the hotel for the third night after extensively damaging a two-story condominium on the 900 block of West Collins Street on Tuesday.
Kandura and his roommate arrived from India less than a year later to pursue a master’s degree at nearby UNT.
“I lost everything. “We don’t know what to do next.”
Kandula and neighbor Paige Hammer believe they know why they lost their home. Ms. Hammer rushed home from work at her clinic Tuesday after hearing reports of a fire at her townhomes in Mesquite Ridge.
Denton firefighters knocked down her door and rescued two dogs. No one was injured.
“It was traumatic for me,” said Hammer after seeing smoke and flames in the townhome she shares with her daughter and boyfriend.
Hammer said it was made worse because most of the efforts to put out the blaze were directed from behind her condo’s fence line into the parking lot of a nearby apartment complex.
The parking lot was overflowing with trash and debris, with three bins that Hummer and other neighbors have recorded in recent weeks.
“It was the size of a house,” Hammer said.
Most of the trash on the other side of the fence line was set on fire on Tuesday.
The Denton Fire Department told NBC 5 that both the source and cause of the fire are under investigation late Thursday.
Assistant Fire Chief and Fire Marshal David Becker added to the statement that the dispatched crew was made aware upon arrival.
“The battalion commander arrived at the scene and found garbage on the 911 Barnard and the fence separating 816 W. Collins and the 911 Barnard on fire,” Becker said.
Hammer says a photo she took outside her back window earlier this month documented a large pile of trash around those three bins.
The trash can was in the parking lot of the University Place apartment complex at 911 Barnard Street.
Leasing office representatives for DentonStudentApartments.com, which lists its website as running the University Place apartments, told NBC 5 on Thursday that there was a fire and a large amount of documented trash leading up to the fire. He said he did not comment on the mountain.
According to the city of Denton, a notice of violation was sent to property owners on August 3 to address the garbage problem, with a deadline of August 13 to clear the garbage and debris.
A city spokesperson said a written notice of violation will only be sent if the property owner fails to mitigate the violation after seven days.
According to the city of Denton, city community service officers have been checking the property daily since Aug. 3 and said the property owner plans to clear the debris by Aug. 13. The fire started on August 9th.
The city of Denton added it received two more complaints against property owners in June. Resolved.
Hammer said he is still looking for a place to live and cannot shake off the deep sense of loss.
“It could have been prevented, so it’s just a stomach ailment,” Hammer said. “All of this could have been avoided if they had cleaned up the trash.”
According to Kandura, the UNT community was quick to respond and provided a hotel for the week.
Nearly $9,000 has already been raised in one day since the online fundraising site launched for Kandula and his roommate.
