Demolition crews knocked down the last couple of walls at the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut Streets on Saturday. Fire devastated the building on January 10 and led to a protracted battle between residents, the building’s owners and the city. A class action lawsuit against the building’s owners, David and Sam Ginsberg, was filed in February.

There has been no announcement about plans for the half-block lot where the buildings once stood.

The demolition of the Windermere Court Apartments at 48th and Walnut, which had been on hold, proceeded today.

Crews have begun to remove the top floors on the southwest corner of the four-story building near where the Jan. 10 fire began. The demolition had been delayed as residents pressured the building’s owners and the city to allow them to retrieve more of their belongings and giving stranded pets some additional time to be rescued or leave the building.

The West Philly-based feline rescue group City Kitties ended their rescue efforts inside the building on Feb. 19 as warm weather melted ice inside the building leaving the building more unstable. City Kitties, the Walnut Hill Community Association, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s office helped residents make their stories known throughout the region. City Kitties has set up a website – windermerefirepets.org – to help keep alive the concerns that came up in the fire’s aftermath.

Residents have also filed a class-action lawsuit against building owners, David and Sam Ginsberg, and management company, Windermere Court Management Corp. The suit alleges that the building was not equipped with the proper fire suppression equipment – sprinklers and smoke alarms – and that the building had not been regularly inspected.

The Philadelphia Weekly’s Tara Murtha has taken a thorough look at the aftermath of the Windermere fire for today’s paper. The piece, “Burning Questions in West Philly Apartment Complex Fire,” fleshes out all the parties in this tragic story – from the residents protesting for access, to the owners’ PR agent to a spokesman for the Mayor’s Office. The story also introduces us to a little known city agency that seems to share in some of the responsibility – Philadelphia’s County Animal Rescue Team (PHL-CART).

Many of us have been following this story for more than a month. Murtha’s piece is a must-read for a look behind the emotions and blame to see what a breakdown in communication between a city government, its residents and private enterprise looks like.

Two residents of the Windermere Court Apartments have filed a class action lawsuit against the building’s owners and management.

The suit claims that the tenants of the building at 48th and Walnut suffered economic losses and emotional distress because of the “negiligence, carelessness and/or recklessness” of the building’s management company, Windermere Court Management Corp., and its owners, David and Sam Ginsberg. Specifically, the suit alleges that the building was not equipped with proper fire detection and suppression equipment – things like smoke alarms and sprinklers – and that the management failed to inspect the building regularly to ensure that it complied with fire codes.

The plaintiffs in the case are Theodore Schall, who lived in an apartment very close to where the Jan. 10 fire began, and John Brendan (J.B) Farley, who has been a key organizer of the recent protests to allow residents to enter the building to retrieve their pets and belongings.

All the residents of the building have been named int he lawsuit and it is their choice whether to opt out.

As the lawsuit was filed today, residents lined up at the building to be given garbage bags with belongings from the apartments. Each resident who arrived at the building today was asked to list the items they wanted from their apartment. The items had to fit in two large garbage bags. Residents were escorted one-by-one through a gate to claim their belongings.

The demolition of the building is set to begin tomorrow.

About 150 people gathered outside the Windermere Court Apartments at the intersection of 48th and Walnut Streets this afternoon to call for the building’s owners to let former residents in to gather their belongings and pets left behind after a devastating fire last month.

Protesters blocked the intersection, prompting police to close streets within a block of the building. Demolition of the Windermere Court building is scheduled to begin Monday. The organizers of the protest said they will file a court injunction Monday to stop the demolition until residents are allowed to enter the building to retrieve their belongings and look for pets, mostly cats, that are still missing after the January 10 fire. No one was injured in the fire.

The organizers also called on protesters to return to the building on Monday at 8:45 a.m. to continue the demonstration.

“People’s pets are in there,” said one organizer. “Their family heirlooms are in there. The ashes of their relatives in urns are in there.”

The city Department of Licenses and Inspections (L and I) has deemed the building “imminently dangerous,” which has led to the decision to demolish it. L and I offiicials have said that the owners of the building must decide whether residents can reenter. So far the owner, which residents say is nearly impossible to reach, has not granted that authorization.

The Walnut Hill Community Association has been very helpful to the former residents of the Windermere. Residents have advised us that any call for donations should go to Walnut Hill CA. They have a page set up for donations here.

Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell stood with the protesters. Blackwell has pressed the city on behalf of the former residents.

Here is a slideshow of Saturday’s protest, which lasted from 2 p.m. to about 3 p.m.

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!