Twelve of the thirteen apartment buildings at the Evergreen Meadows complex on White Birch Road in Edison were deemed dangerous on Friday after ceilings fell in two different units.
The management of the apartment complex received an unsafe structure warning from local authorities on August 3 after a ceiling fell in the living room, according to a post made by Edison Mayor Sam Joshi on Facebook. A person in the room at the moment of the fall was slightly hurt. Then, in someone’s bedroom, a ceiling in a separate building fell at approximately four in the morning on Friday.
According to Joshi, 12 of the 13 buildings were considered hazardous because of structural issues, and all 13 were evacuated on Friday. The 12 buildings include 280 apartments in total.
“We wouldn’t say it’s weather-related because it’s an ongoing issue that happened for a while,” Joshi replied when asked what caused the collapses. “But we do believe that the heat could have contributed to the expansion of some of the wood and the nails coming out.”
“You can actually see where the sheetrock is bowing between, and you can see where the nails are actually pulling through the sheetrock. The sheetrock’s like pulling off the nails. It’s not the nails coming out of the trusses, it’s the sheetrock is failing almost, like it’s not being held up there … We’re finding that in every one of the buildings,” stated construction code official John Soltesz.
According to Soltesz, there was a comparable collapse a few years ago, and at that time, the management business was instructed to have a structural expert investigate the problem.
The mayor stated that several contractors were dispatched by the management business on Friday to address the issue. For the time being, the firm is paying for food and stays at neighboring motels for the inhabitants. Some tenants were temporarily permitted to reenter their flats on Saturday to grab personal goods.
