Tena Unrau was busy moving Tuesday.
She lived next door to the Yorston Street apartment house destroyed by fire last Friday and was told she had to move because the city has placed a “do not occupy” order on the apartment houses directly next door.
Unrau was living in the house on the east side of the burnt out building, but said she has found a new place to live.
Community policing co-ordinator Dave Dickson said by Wednesday evening he anticipated that all 16 people displaced by the fire would have accommodation.
Unrau had lived there for two years and learned about the fire Friday morning when she returned to Williams Lake from camping.
“We were trying to find my daughter because she was staying here,” Unrau said.
There were two adults and four children living with her, she said, as she called to her daughter to make sure to grab her drum.
Her belongings are OK and what she cannot wash at home, she’ll take to the dry cleaners she said.
City manager of operations Geoff Goodall said the “do not occupy” order went up because the city will be requiring an engineer’s report saying the buildings are structurally safe.
“Then we’ll do a health and safety inspection on the buildings to make sure everything is good.”
There’s no date set for the engineer’s report, although Goodall said the building on the west side sustained quite a “whack” when the burnt building came down.
“We want to make sure when and if the buildings are reoccupied they are safe to do so. That’s the city’s take on it,” Goodall said.
The burnt out foundation has to be safe and in the meantime there is security on site round the clock.
PD Security guard Joan Boehm said people have been coming to the homes continuously to get their belongings.
Last Friday as he watched the fire, Ed LeBlanc told the Tribune he was worried about his four cats.
He lived in the apartment house down below next door where he lived, but Boehm said everyone found their pets.
“We had no loss of life,” Boehm said.