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Son of North Carolina Woman Killed in Apartment Fire Files Premises Liability-Related Wrongful Death Lawsuit

In North Carolina, Juan Arango, the son of Gloria Inez Suarez, a woman who died in a fire in her apartment that destroyed her building in the Colonial Village complex at Highland Hills in Carrboro last September is suing Colonial Properties Trust and property manager Renee Schumacher for improper maintenance and poor construction.

The Carrboro Fire Department has not determined the cause of the fire, but Arango says that it was the faulty construction and negligent maintenance that caused the flames to spread so fast. Firefighters were only able to look in 4 of the 14 units before the building started to fall down. Two women that jumped from their second-story balconies suffered injuries.

The fire reportedly burned for nearly 30 minutes before anyone reported it.
Arango says that none of the smoke detectors in the building were in operation. According to a fire department report, the fire detectors did not alert the victims that there was a fire.

Arango?s North Carolina wrongful death lawsuit accuses Colonial Properties and Schumacher of not creating proper fire barriers and failing to keep the common areas and crawl space free of combustible items.

In North Carolina, apartment landlords and managers are supposed to take the proper safety and maintenance precautions to ensure that there are no unsafe conditions on the premise or in a building or residential unit that can cause injury or death.

Failure to put in place and maintain the proper safety measures can be grounds for a North Carolina premises liability lawsuit if the injured person can prove that the manager or owner knew of the potentially unsafe condition but failed to eliminate this hazard.

Our North Carolina premises liability attorneys know how to properly investigate and pursue your case so that you can receive recovery for your injuries or the death of your loved one.

Woman's death in fire leads to lawsuit, NewsObserver.com, June 4, 2008

Related Web Resources:

Colonial Properties Trust

Premises Liability, Justia

Full post as published by North Carolina Injury Lawyer Blog on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).