Eight months after Cambridge apartment fire, residents still unable to return home

Some Cambridge residents say they’re still waiting to move back into their units, eight months after a fire caused significant damage to the first floor of their Avenue Road apartment building.

According to Cambridge Fire, five people were taken to hospital in May and a total of 26 were displaced.

Officials later said charging lithium-ion batteries in one of the units sparked the fire.

Nelson Cordeiro lives across from the unit where it started.

“I lost pretty much everything, like all my clothes,” he said. “[I] had to replace everything. A lot of electronics have gone faulty.”

Displaced residents, like Cordeiro, were asked to store their belongings in large storage pods in the parking lot of the building.

“I've noticed rats and mice or whatever in there. So it's like, how long is it going to be? Am I going to [have to] replace more things?”

The damaged exterior of an Avenue Road building in Cambridge following a fire on May 23, 2024. (Chris Thomson/CTV News)

Cordeiro has been living with his uncle, Helder Medeiros, who currently lives on the third floor. His unit wasn’t damaged but he was at Cordeiro’s when the fire broke out.

“No alarms went off. And then I hear my super yelling: ‘Out, fire, fire, get out!’” he said.

Cordeiro’s grateful to have a roof over his head, but it isn’t an ideal living situation as he has to sleep on a makeshift bed on the floor. 

“I'm not sleeping properly, you know, body aches,” he explained.

Medeiros and Cordeiro said they’re trying to make the most of an unfortunate situation.

“He's my family and everything, but one bedroom with two guys and two dogs and a cat? It's not the way life should be,” Medeiros said.

Response to an Avenue Road apartment building fire in Cambridge on May 24, 2024.

Cordeiro still has access to his unit, so he can feed his fish, but he isn’t allowed to move back in yet despite the fact that renovations appear complete.

“My apartment looks completely brand new and it's been looking like that for like three months,” he said.

Yet he can’t help but fear the worst.

“I feel like they're trying to push us out so they can charge new people a new price for the renovations that they've done. And it's like, what about us?”

The Avenue Road apartment building where a fire broke out on May 23, 2024. (Heather Senoran/CTV News)

The building’s superintendent, Tim, spoke to CTV News over the phone. He hasn’t been told a specific timeline for when renovations will be complete, but said they’re ensuring standard procedures are being followed and residents are being informed.

Tim added that he hasn’t heard anything about evictions or rent increases.

CTV News also reached out to London Cambridge Development, the owners of the building, but did not hear back by our deadline.