DANIA BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Residents of an apartment building in Dania Beach were forced to leave their homes for the second time in less than two months after a rooftop pool believed to have been repaired began to leak into their units, causing heavy flooding.
7News cameras captured Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies and Fire Rescue crews outside The Place at Dania Beach, located along East Dania Beach Boulevard, just east of U.S. 1, Saturday afternoon.
Officials said this evacuation was limited to tenants on the sixth and seventh floors, but city officials said it establishes a problematic pattern that needs to be resolved.
Residents described the water woes they faced this weekend.
“There’s water coming from the ceiling of the bathroom and coming from the ceiling of my bedroom,” said resident Maurice Andrews.
Cellphone video sent by a 7News viewer showed a steady stream of water flowing into a hallway and making its way inside apartments.
The leak comes roughly six weeks after the same problems led to the evacuation of about 250 residents.
“It is unacceptable to us that something that occurred a month ago is happening again,” said Dania Beach City Manager Ana Garcia.
“I was house hunting because of the nightmare from last time,” said Andrews.
Officials said this second leak is not nearly as extensive as the first, but it still forced out about 30 people.
Fans have been working around the clock to dry up the massive pool leak flooding the apartment building.
“There is ventilation, I guess, to take the mold out,” resident Cheena Linda said.
“In the hallway when you come out, you see all these machines blowing out air,” resident Onyekachi Nduka said. “There’s about maybe six, seven machines all throughout the sixth floor.”
Drying out the water may take several days, especially after a quarter of the pool water was missing from the pool, flooding hallways and apartments.
Dania Beach officials and the apartment building’s management company said they are working to put up displaced residents in local hotels.
The units that suffered the most damage have no electricity. In half of the building, the power remains on.
However, it remains unclear when those residents living in the affected units will be able to return to their homes.
Residents are looking for compensation since this is the second time the water has leaked from the pool.
“We’ll tell them they’re costing a lot of money, too. They went like, ‘The lease is $120, $280. It is an inconvenience,;'” Linda said. “Me, I’m just looking to get compensated. Everybody’s afraid; people are even thinking that maybe the building is gonna come down or something. We don’t know how it’s deteriorating or anything like that.”
“I don’t know how long. I don’t know what the process is,” said resident Morris Goldwire.
Meanwhile, investigators are working to pinpoint the cause pool to leak and to ensure it is repaired.
“It could be anything. It could be human error. It could be that something was left open,” said Garcia. “It could be something that is defective, so we don’t know at this time, but our investigation will lead to those answers we all so desperately want.”
Residents have asked if there will be any mold issues once the water is all dried up, but officials said the water is in the walls, which is difficult to mitigate.
Cellphone video showed water shooting out from a pump and out into the building.
“We know that the water came from the pool pump,” Andrews said. “Someone said it might’ve been a filter that wasn’t completely tightened, but that’s not the maintenance people’s issue at the building, that’s the people responsible for the maintenance of the pool.”
A restoration company is in place. However, residents are worried about the long-term effects.
“I don’t want my son to be inhaling mold and my wife as well, too,” Nduka said.
“They need to shut this building down, pay the people who live here enough money to relocate and fix the building,” Andrews said.
The Place at Dania Beach is only about three years old. Officials said they also want to get to the bottom of this leak to ensure that this does not happen at other buildings.
City inspectors are involved in the investigation, officials said. It is unclear what the inspectors determined.
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