Chelsea Curry awoke to the smell of flames at 3 a.m. outside her third-story apartment. She rushed out of her building, falling over furniture and running past burning sparks of fire.
The 38-year-old single mother escaped to safety, but she lost her home of six years and her belongings within the two-bedroom unit at Grande Club near Duluth. She’s one of 58 people displaced as a result of an August 2020 fire created by an undetermined cause at the complex.
Curry and four other former tenants filed lawsuits last week in Gwinnett State Court against the complex’s owner and property manager for negligence. Grande Club failed multiple fire inspections for faulty fire alarms and sprinklers within a few months of the fire, according to the lawsuit filings.
“I just want people in that neighborhood and community to know, ‘Hey, if you rent from this company, you need to understand what you’re getting into because they really don’t care about y’all,’” said Harold Boone Jr, an attorney representing the former tenants.
Grande Club would only let the displaced residents enter their former units to collect remaining belongings if they signed a release of liability, Boone said, effectively promising not to sue the complex under any conditions.
The chief operating officer of Strata Equity Group, the real estate investment and management company that owns Grande Club, declined to provide comment to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The property manager could not be reached for comment.
The plaintiffs hope to secure monetary damages to cover the cost of personal injuries, medical and incidental expenses and lost wages incurred as a result of the fire. They are also seeking compensation for the pain, suffering, mental anguish, fright, shock and terror caused by the event, according to the filings.
Credit: Chelsea Curry
Credit: Chelsea Curry
“I just felt like they weren’t really too concerned about us at all,” Curry said. “I felt totally discarded.”
No one was injured during the fire, officials announced at the time. But displaced families all lost valuable items, Boone said. Three of his clients lost sensitive documents related to their immigration visas that are hard to come by.
More than a year later, Curry said she’s working two jobs to earn enough money to repurchase her scorched items worth thousands of dollars. Renter’s insurance only covered about $13,000, she said, about 15-20% of the total cost of her lost items.
“I still get a lot anxiety,” Curry said. “Especially right after it happened, if I even heard a fire truck, I would get an anxious, panicky feeling... if something just smells like smoke, I feel jumpy.”
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