FORT MYERS, Fla. Carmen Alicea complained to her landlords for months about a water leak inside her ceiling.
She was just inches away when a part of that ceiling collapsed Monday.
“My grandma was in the kitchen cooking us breakfast and it just completely collapsed,” Frankie Hernandez said. “… It scared me because my grandma was right under it.”
The sound of the collapse can be heard in this cellphone video, Hernandez said.
City code enforcement officials deemed Alicea’s unit in the Parkside Apartments on the 4200 block of DeSoto Avenue unsafe to live in after surveying the damage. The city is helping her find a temporary home.
A property manager for ASA Florida Real Estate, which owns the apartment, came to the scene and said the company would replace the drywall. But code enforcement officials said the leak and other issues must be fixed first.
“There’s rats in the kitchen and you can hear them at night running in the ceiling,” Hernandez said. “It’s disgusting.”
Property managers declined to comment.
