ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Hundreds of Orange County residents are trying to figure out where they’ll spend the night after they were forced to evacuate from their homes at the Rialto Apartment Complex in Orange County.
More than 350 people were evacuated early Thursday morning after officials identified structural concerns.
Orange County Fire Rescue responded to the apartments located at 7343 W. Sand Lake Road in Orlando around 5 a.m.
Residents reported loud popping sounds from the building, with several callers reporting that their front doors were jammed. According to Orange County Fire Rescue, this raised immediate concerns of structural instability.
Channel 9 spoke with the woman who called 911. She described panic after hearing the creaks and pops from her apartment. She told Channel 9, “This was the scariest moment of her life,” adding that she kicked out the window in her living room and noticed a crack in her wall before Fire Rescue broke down her door to help her evacuate.
Arlina Aguirre, a resident who had just finished a nursing shift at a local hospital, was also among those unable to exit their units.
When fire rescue arrived at her door, telling her to evacuate, she realised she was trapped. “They had to come in and break my door so I could get out,” Aguirre said.
She told Channel 9 she was only able to retrieve her keys, her cellphone and her son’s dog, Daisy, before being forced to leave.
Firefighters observed physical damage throughout the structure while assisting residents during the door-to-door evacuations.
William Farhat, Division Chief with Orange County Fire Rescue, noted that the signs of failure were visible to the naked eye. “What I saw was very obvious cracking in and around fire doors and around residential doors,” Farhat said.
The Orange County Division of Building Safety was called to the scene and agreed that evacuations were necessary.
The complex’s management has hired a private structural engineering firm from Fort Myers to evaluate the building’s integrity. However, officials stated there is currently no set timeline for when residents might be able to return to the complex.
Gabriel Santos, a resident at the Rialto, described waking up to the chaotic scene with Orange County Fire Rescue, emergency management, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office outside his home.
“It’s not every day you wake up, and your place is caving in,” Santos said.
He told Channel 9 that when he learned the evacuations were due to potential structural instability, he thought of the Surfside disaster in South Florida.
The collapse of Champlain Towers South happened on June 24, 2021 and left 98 people dead.
“It’s pretty crazy. They were just saying that they didn’t want this to be like another Miami situation,” Santos said.
The American Red Cross and the Orange County Department of Emergency Management are currently working to provide housing for the displaced families. Several local hotels have begun offering discounted rates to residents who are unable to return to their units, including Rosen Hotels & Resorts (Rosen Inn, Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre, and Rosen Shingle Creek), Doubletree Theme Park Resort, and Courtyard by Marriott (across from Universal Orlando).
Displaced residents must request the special rates by mentioning the Rialto apartment evacuation. For residents looking for additional information or assistance with hotel accommodations, Fire Rescue says residents should call Rialto Property Management at 407-630-8718, option #2.
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