Glendale city officials order improvements at Glendale Manor apartments

GLENDALE, Ariz. (FOX 10) -- The City of Glendale now deems the Glendale Manor apartments unsafe, after a full investigation of the property last month. This means the property owner now has to make improvements and comply with several requests made by the city in order to stay operational.

"Most of it because of a lack of maintenance and deterioration," said building safety official Stephen Dudley.

A month ago, the Building Safety Division with the City of Glendale conducted an investigation of the property in question, after several fires broke out, and residents filed complaints with the city.

"We haven't had heat since before Christmas, no gas since Christmas," said tenant Josh Finesilver. "I haven't been able to cook a regular meal."

"Not only us, kids are in danger. Gas leaks." said tenant Debbie Ruybal.

After walking through the property, the city found 14 units that were deemed unsafe. Some of the immediate safety violations included boarded-up windows that blocked emergency escape and rescue openings, as well as exposed electrical boxes, which have since been fixed.

Meanwhile, the city gave the owner 30 days to fix other issues.

"Involved correction of stairs, exit stairs, landings at the bottoms of the stairs, paved paths of egress on the site," said Dudley.

The city gave the owner 90 days to complete other things, such as damaged carports.

"Such as the repair of the mechanical rooms," There are two large mechanical rooms that serve the complex and those repairs are a little more involved."