August 21, 2012

By Zach Foor

After nearly two months of reconstruction, many residents of the Brookside on College apartment complex were able to move into their new homes Saturday.

The apartment complex, located at College Avenue and Walnut Street, suffered a devastating fire in May. The 73-unit, 145,000-square-foot complex was not set to open until this fall and no one had officially moved in yet. The fire caused approximately $7 million in damage, and the radiant heat also caused some damage to the neighboring Stephens College, including broken windows and melted plastic.

The department had been collaborating with Columbia Police Department detectives, the state fire marshal’s office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to determine the cause of the blaze, according to a July 27 news release from the Columbia Fire Department. Examination of the scene was completed some time ago, but the cause of the fire is still undetermined, Columbia Fire Department Capt. John Metz.

“We welcome anyone with info or photos,” Metz said. “We’re eagerly accepting any additional information.”

The destruction of so many units has led Brookside to allow residents to terminate their leases. On Aug. 14, Stephens College opened the doors of Hillcrest Hall to displaced tenants whose units would not be ready in time for the fall semester. Brookside could not be reached for comment on the number of residents who chose to terminate their leases instead of relocating to Hillcrest Hall.

Stephens College spokeswoman Amy Gipson was unaware of any new damage estimates for Stephens College.

“We are in the process of finalizing the information related to necessary repairs,” Gipson said. “Stephens has told Brookside that 131 rooms are available to them.”

Brookside management released an earlier statement promising 47 percent of the units would be ready by Aug. 14. On Aug. 1, Brookside informed residents via email that the move-in date had been pushed back to Aug. 18, and approximately 40 percent of the units would be ready by that date.

Sophomore Nick Bralich said the delayed move-in date did not affect him too much.

“I was planning on coming down on Aug. 17 or 18 anyway,” Bralich said. “It didn’t really affect me at all.”

Senior Laura Davison, another Brookside resident, said the delayed move-in was inconvenient. Davison planned on moving in Tuesday, but was unable to because of the change in move-in dates.

“I don’t think that the notification was given early enough,” Davison said. “The first couple of days after the fire they were good about communicating, but after that it’s dropped off a little bit. We didn’t know that we could move in on Aug. 18 until two or three weeks before the move-in date. I think that communication overall could have been better, especially in the more recent case.”

Senior Andrew Weil said he was skeptical from the beginning that the first date Brookside gave him for the move-in was for certain.

“It was an interesting, tough experience,” Weil said. “I’ve been here seeing the construction go along, and to get it up that fast would be pretty amazing. At the end of the day, I was happy that we hadn’t moved in until after the fire had happened, before any of us could have been in there. It could have been a lot worse.”