One year later: What’s the status of the lawsuits against the Cooper Apartments?
In the initial weeks and months after a six-alarm fire displaced 834 tenants of The Cooper apartments near downtown Fort Worth in June 2025, residents rallied around each other. The neighbors held protests, a town hall and shared information in a social media group as they searched for answers about the state of their apartments and when they would be able to get their property back.
But that’s not the only thing they did. On August 6, 2025, dozens of residents filed a lawsuit against the companies and people who they believe are responsible for the fire, loss of personal property and emotional pain they say the fire and management issues caused.
“What happened at The Cooper is unfathomable,” Varghese Summersett attorney Katie Steele said in a statement at time of the lawsuit filing. “No one should lose their home due to negligence — and then be shut out from recovering what little remained. This is cruelty piled on top of catastrophe.”
Here’s where the lawsuits stand now, almost a year later.
Who do the tenants want to hold accountable?
The tenants’ attorneys filled a lawsuit in a Tarrant County district court against The Cooper Fort Worth LLC, the property’s owner Lightbulb Capital Group, the previous management company Cushman and Wakefield, new management company RPM Living, electrical contractor Cano Electric Inc. and company owner Larry Cano, as well as Armando Rodelo, the electrician who worked on an HVAC unit and replaced a breaker on the day of the fire.
The Star-Telegram reached out to the defendants’ lawyers for comment for this story but did not receive a response.
Dozens of tenants initially signed on with lawyers and more followed later. Now at least a hundred former tenants are seeking more than $1 million in damages, with the amount to be determined by a jury.
Some residents lost everything due to the fire and the subsequent mold caused from the water used in putting the fire out.
“At the end of the day, a lot of people just wanted their stuff, because a lot of the things can’t be replaced through any sort of money or monetary compensation,” Steele told the Star-Telegram recently.
Tenants said they believe a prolonged lack of electricity and inability to retrieve items added to the level of damage and loss of property in their units.
Some tenants previously told the Star-Telegram they thought the insurance that they were paying as part of their rent would cover all damages. They found out after the fire what they were paying for was only for property damage that happened because of the tenants, or people visiting them, and did not cover any personal property damage due to fires.
They said they felt misled by Cushman and Wakefield, and had they known, they would have paid for their own renters’ insurance.
“I think my views on landlords and stuff are a little bit more radicalized now,” said former Cooper resident Sid Telidevara.
Telidevara said he was lucky to be able to find a new home from a private landlord and not a large corporation.
The tenants also allege that their units were accessed and items went missing during the period of time when they were locked out of their units by the management company.
“ There’s not really any way of telling who or why or how things were stolen,” Steele said. “But there’s not a single client that I have that doesn’t have some sort of theft claim or report that items were missing.”
Not all the tenants suffered property loss. Those who lived in units farther away from the fire damage were able to retrieve a lot of their belongings.
Steele said that it took until January of this year to resolve the issue of tenants’ property being removed from the property.
After signing a waiver acknowledging that items in their units may be contaminated and hazardous, the company allowed residents to have a moving company move their things out.
Steel said that 18 clients who lived in the demolished units lost most of their things.
“They were allowed to get five items out of those units, but that was it, and trying to whittle down your whole life to five items is a huge ask,” Steele said.
What caused the Cooper fire?
An investigation from the Fort Worth Fire Department concluded that electrical issues caused the fire.
A maintenance worker told investigators that he was working on the building’s HVAC units breakers and wiring on the roof when the fire started.
According to previous reporting from the Star-Telegram, fire department spokesperson Craig Trojacek said the structural design of the building’s roof made it hard to extinguish the fire.
Where does the lawsuit stand now?
Cano Electric, the company whose electrical apprentice was working on the HVAC system on the day of the fire, has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Steele said the bankruptcy filing temporarily put a hold on the lawsuit, but the hold has since been lifted and the case is now moving onto the discovery phase.
According to Steele, the bankruptcy trustee is now dividing the company’s assets, and the Cooper residents will likely only recover a small amount from the electric company.
The lawsuit is expected to last well into late 2027 with discovery and other legal motions. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for July 5, 2027, according to court documents.
The Cooper Apartments has started leasing units in building two after remediating and refurnishing them according to Steele and tenants who saw the listing on The Cooper’s website.
The new construction company that was hired by the company has filed commercial building permits with the City of Fort Worth to begin construction on the stacks of demolished units in building one of The Cooper apartments.
William McReynolds, another former Cooper tenant, said that all the issues after the fire could have been avoided if the complex was run by a more “competent” management company.
Willilams said when a company is responsible for peoples' homes, they should have a plan or playbook for how to manage the property during a crisis.
“I feel like they very well could have orchestrated that in a manner that has their tenants best interest at heart,” McReynolds said. “I feel like that was absent in The Cooper’s case.”