Initiative Legal Group | Tenants File Class Action Lawsuit In Wake Of Massive Fire At Edgewater, NJ Apartment Complex

Initiative Legal Group is a law firm based in Los Angeles. ILG prosecutes class actions on behalf of employees, consumers, and others who have had their rights violated. 

The first part of the article below is by newyork.cbslocal.com. It reads...

EDGEWATER, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – Two tenants of an apartment complex in Edgewater, New Jersey that was mostly destroyed in a fire have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all residents.

The suit, filed this week in Bergen County Superior Court, seeks damages for economic and property losses from the massive fire at the Avalon at Edgewater complex last week.

The five-alarm blaze destroyed 240 units, permanently displacing 500 residents and temporarily displacing another 520 residents from surrounding buildings.

“Our clients have been displaced, many of them from their homes. Many of them have lost everything that was in their homes,” attorney Bruce Greenberg, with the firm Lite DePalma Greenberg, told 1010 WINS. “The lawsuit includes not only people who lived at the Avalon but people who live in the neighborhood and were damaged by the fire as well.”

The suit alleges that Avalon’s property managers initially told residents there was a “minor fire” in the complex nearly two hours after the fire first started.

EXTRA: Click Here For The Full Complaint

“For a short time, building employees were telling residents at the time that the fire didn’t seem serious,” Greenberg said. “Two hours after the fire was first reported, Avalon sent an email to tenants saying that there was, what Avalon called, a ‘minor fire’ in the complex. In fact, of course, it was a fire that was visible across the river in New York.”

While no people died in the blaze, the suit says the fire claimed the lives of many pets and destroyed other irreplaceable items.

It was filed by Robert Loposky and Richard Kemp, who were both residents at the complex, according to the suit. It says Loposky lost all of his personal belongings, including his dogs. It says Kemp also lost all of his personal belongings.

The suit names Maryland-based AvalonBay Communities Inc. as the defendant as well as unknown entities and individuals that “may be responsible for and/or may have participated in the improper activities of defendant AvalonBay.”

Police said the blaze was sparked by workers using a blow-torch to make repairs to a leak.

“A plumbing repair ignited a fire in the wall which then spread through the building,” Edgewater Police Chief William Skidmore said last week. “It was accidental, there was nothing suspicious about it, and we have complete verification and there’s no doubt about it.”

source: here

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