Woman's death in fire leads to lawsuit

CARRBORO — The son of a woman who died in a September apartment fire is suing her landlord, claiming poor construction and maintenance caused the fire to spead quickly.

Gloria Inez Suarez died Sept. 30 when a fire began in her apartment and destroyed a 14-unit building at Colonial Village at Highland Hills, injuring two other women who leapt from their second-story balconies.

The Carrboro Fire Department was not able to determine the cause of the blaze but has said it spread so quickly that 70 percent of the building was in flames by the time firefighters arrived.

Firefighters were only able to search four of the units, and the building started to collapse within 10 minutes of their arrival.

“The damage was just too great for us to be able to reconstruct anything,” said Deputy Fire Chief Trey Mayo. “That just happens sometimes, especially when a fire burns as long as that one did without being reported. That fire burned for 28 minutes without being reported.”

Suarez’ 27-year-old son, Juan Arango, administrator of her estate, filed suit last week. The lawsuit claims that poor construction and maintenance of the building caused the fire to spread quickly and that none of the building’s smoke detectors were working.

Mayo could not confirm that, but a fire-department incident report does state that none of the victims were alerted to the blaze by fire or smoke detectors.

The lawsuit claims that Colonial Properties Trust and property manager Renee Shumacher did not properly maintain the building’s fire protection equipment or the fire-resistance rating of the building materials. It also claims the defendants failed to maintain appropriate fire barriers and to keep the crawl-space and common areas clear of combustible materials.

The lawsuit doesn't specify the damages sought, merely claiming at least $10,000 in damages.

Efforts to reach the defendants have been unsuccessful.