Cooper apartment tenants file second lawsuit over fire damage, poor management

Nearly a week after dozens of tenants of The Cooper filed a lawsuit saying an unqualified electrician caused the fire at the Fort Worth apartments, a second group of tenants filed a new lawsuit on Monday.

It’s been almost two months since more than 800 residents were displaced by the June fire that started on the roof of Building 1, where work was being done on an HVAC unit.

This new lawsuit in Tarrant County district court has 67 plaintiffs who are suing The Cooper; the apartment’s owner, Lightbulb Capital Group; previous management company Cushman and Wakefield; new management company RPM Living; Cano Electric, the electrical company hired to work on the HVAC, and its technician Armando Rodelo, who was working on site the day of the fire. The tenants are asking for over $1 million in damages, with the amount to be determined by a jury.

A spokesperson for The Cooper has said that they can’t comment on pending litigation. The other defendants have not responded to requests for comment.

Between the two lawsuits, a total of 116 residents have now sought legal avenues.

The Fort Worth Fire Department said in a report that electrical issues caused the historic six-alarm fire.

According to the report, the electrician (Rodelo) told investigators that he was working on an HVAC unit on the roof and a connected breaker tripped. He said he left to purchase a new breaker. Upon returning and installing the new breaker, he noticed the breaker auto-tripped. He said he disconnected the wiring, smelled smoke and saw flames near the air-conditioning unit, and called 911.

Investigators concluded the fire was accidental and “caused by an electrical anomaly with arcing,” the report states. Fire officials said the blaze originated in the “electrically-energized wiring within void spaces along and under roofing material.”

The new lawsuit was filed by attorneys Kaleb Godwin and Nicholas Eber from Dallas-based firm K. Godwin Legal, and Bradley Kizzia from another Dallas firm, Kizzia Johnson.

Godwin said that the lawsuit seeks to hold Cano Electric liable for the fire, as well as the management companies and owner for their mismanagement of the apartments and the subsequent lack of communication and assistance to tenants.

“We believe that Cano bears a responsibility from the start of the fire, and the things up until the point,” Godwin said. “Where the lines start to get a little blurred, as far as where the transitional liability breaks from Cano and transitions to The Cooper and the management, or rather, the mismanagement of scheduling tenants to go in and get their belongings.”

Some residents have received letters telling them they either can’t get their personal property back or that they will have to hire a vendor approved to handle and clean toxic materials to retrieve their items.

Godwin expressed hope that the court will intervene, allowing tenants to retrieve their property and salvageable items from their units, mitigating the damages to the extent possible for the residents. This is something he said The Cooper and management should have been doing the entire time.

Prior to the lawsuit, Godwin filed a notice letter to all the relevant parties to preserve evidence, letting The Cooper know to expect litigation and not to destroy evidence.

Samuel Markelson, a tenant of Building 1, said that he is beyond infuriated and stressed out from the way that Cushman and Wakefield handled the situation, saying the communication breakdown between residents and management was frustrating.

Markelson said he was stuck outside on the day of the fire with no real communication and with only his car keys for over seven hours. He said police eventually let him go to the apartment garage and get his car.

He said that he hopes that tenants will be able to get some answers.

“Anything’s better than nothing,” Markelson said. “As to just trying to come up with a solution for residents and people to be able to move on with their lives. As opposed to living in limbo and giving false hope, a false sense of closure with no communication and just to be met with frustration and to be constantly getting backpedaled on their part from their lack of communication.”

Sid Telidevara, a tenant in Building 1, said The Cooper told him that his apartment was deemed a total loss. He is interested in what the lawsuit will prove about the handling of the fire and other issues leading up to it.

“I feel pretty good about the lawsuit, because I earnestly believe that they are at fault for what happened,” Telidevara said.