I caught up with former longtime Windermere Court resident Patricia Brightful earlier this week at a Red Cross function in Center City at which she and a few other residents spoke. She talks about how residents are trying to maintain contact with one another and their efforts to get answers about the fate of the building and their belongings still inside.

Demolition of the building is scheduled to begin Monday. A rally will be held today at 2 p.m. outside the building at 48th and Walnut.

Walkout at West Philly High

The Philadelphia Public School Notebook has a thorough piece about the walkout at West Philadelphia High School yesterday. They report that as many as 100 students walked out in protest of constant changes at the school, which was recently declared a “promise academy” by the school district. The designation carries a number of changes, including the dismissal of the entire faculty and the rehiring of a maximum of 50 percent of teachers.

The Philadelphia Inquirer also posted a story yesterday on the walkout.

“I’m appalled at what’s going on,” junior D’Atwan Nelson, a leader of the walkout, told the Inquirer.

Windermere cats video

Philly.com posted a video yesterday on the efforts of the West Philly based feline rescue group City Kitties to rescue cats still inside the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut, which was devastated by fire on January 10. Demolition of the building is scheduled to begin Monday.

A spokesman for the mayor’s office told West Philly Local today that the demolition of the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut Streets in West Philadelphia will begin Monday.

“The city and the owner have come to agreement and the building demolition will commence on Monday,” said Mark McDonald, a spokesman in Mayor Michael Nutter’s office. “The property owner is the one to talk to about the retrieval of anything inside the building. It is structurally unsound and has been declared imminently dangerous by Licenses and Inspections. But again, it’s under the owner’s control.”

The Windermere Court building was partially destroyed by fire on January 10. Residents have been pressing city officials and the owners of the building for access to retrieve their belongings and search for pets, which they have been denied. A barbed wire fence was erected around much of the building.

Many residents have organized their own security for the building to watch over what might remain from their belongings and to look for pets that were left behind during the fire and may still be alive.

“My biggest frustration is that we know that there are still pets in there alive,” said Lara Figueroa, a former Windermere resident.

Residents and the animal rescue group City Kitties are holding a rally tomorrow at 2 p.m. to protest the lack of information and cooperation from the building’s owners, who were not available for comment.

The poster for Annie that was put up around the neighborhood.

Another Windermere cat was found alive a month and a day after the West Philly building was devastated by fire. Annie, a tortoise shell, jumped into the arms of a City Kitties volunteer around dawn this morning outside of the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut. You may have seen posters for Annie up around the neighborhood (see left). She is missing her tail.

Here’s how the volunteer tells the story (on the City Kitties site):

Before dawn this morning, as a City Kitties volunteer left her house, she heard a cat howling in distress. On a neighbor’s porch, she spotted a tailless tortoiseshell cat. “Annie?” It couldn’t be.

The second she heard her name, Annie came running and practically jumped into the volunteer’s arms. She knew this was her chance, and once safely inside, she knew just what to do: purr like crazy.

One month and one day after the Windermere fire, just when hope seemed to be running out, Annie made a miraculous appearance one block from the burned out building she used to call home. Not only that, she showed up right outside of City Kitties “headquarters.” We don’t believe in fate — just really smart cats who know exactly where to find help.

A rally for Windermere residents and their pets is planned for tomorrow outside West Philadelphia High School. See the story about that here.

A barbed wire fence now encircles the Windermere Court building. Photo by Julija Kulneva

A rally is planned from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday outside the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut to gather support for former residents, who still don’t have access to their belongings and pets more than a month after the fire.

Residents say they are staging the rally to make people aware of the lack of information and cooperation from the building’s owners.

The building had been deemed unsafe to enter, but residents have reportedly been told by the city that permission has been granted to the owner to allow people in. It’s the miscommunication that has former residents angry.

“It’s so frustrating,” said former resident Lara Figueroa. “Everything we find out, we find out a week after the fact.”

Residents have been told that the building will likely be at least partially demolished. The building’s owners were not available for comment.

Residents have also organized their own security of the building day and night to watch for potential looters and pets still stranded inside. The building is now surrounded by a barbed wire fence and has been padlocked.

“My biggest frustration is that we know that there are still pets in there alive,” said Figueroa. She said pets have been spotted in windows in the building, but no one has been allowed inside to rescue them.

West Philly-based feline rescue group City Kitties is joining the protest as well to help with recovering residents’ stranded pets.

City Kitties organizers write:

Despite obvious signs of life inside, no one took action–not the owners, not L&I, not the fire marshal, not the insurance investigators who all had access to the building. Just two days after this disaster, fire fighters said there was nothing more they could do and no possibility that cats could have survived.

Now the Windermere owners claim that the buildings’ exterior doors are sealed and that L&I [The city office of Licenses and Inspection] won’t allow anyone inside ever again–and yet a maintenance man, security guards, and insurance company investigators have accessed the building as recently as today, Wednesday February 9th. Meanwhile, the owners are moving forward with demolition, knowing full well that there are still pets inside!

Within a day of the Jan. 10 at the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut Street people from around the area stepped up to help the 100 or more people that the fire made homeless. Folks donated clothes, money and other things to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and other organizations. Little of that help has seemingly made it to the victims. We wanted to alert readers to a discussion on our original story on aid to the victims. Here is a sample comment from Lara, a former resident of Windermere Court:

I am also a former resident of the Windermere apartments, and yes, I can confirm that none of the clothing donated to the Salvation Army goes directly to us. And the same goes for any money donated to the Red Cross – it DOES NOT go directly to us. We have each been given a $100 voucher to use at a Salvation Army store, in one visit, before mid February. As far as donated clothing goes, unfortunately I have no idea where it can be donated where it will be held for us. Some of us have found adequate clothing through friends, coworkers, and the help of other former residents of Windermere Court. Others have had more difficulty finding what they need. I will say this though… we have barely seen any of all of the aid we keep hearing of, and it is not only disheartening, but angering. Where is it going? We (many former residents) keep reading misinformation about such resources that have supposedly been provided to us in news articles again and again. We have not been put up in hotels or apartments by anyone but perhaps friends or family, and we have been mostly fending for ourselves at the same time as grieving what we’ve lost. We’ve been communicating with one another and have been each other’s best source of information and resources. I wish I could help you help us, but I don’t know exactly how to do that.

See more comments here. Next week we plan to do a one-month update on what’s happening with fire victims and the building.