Delon Gibbs -- one of 60 Mandy Management tenants who lost their homes in a fire -- with daughter London at temporary lodgings.
Delon Gibbs had just arrived at Amici Tavern in North Haven for a Valentine’s Day dinner with his girlfriend and two daughters when he got the call from a neighbor: “Your apartment’s on fire!”
Gibbs had left his home at 6:50 p.m. Monday, received the call at 7:05, and returned back to 42 Warner St. by 7:20.
Within that 30-minute timeframe, the flames in his unit had turned into a three-alarm fire, resulting in a “total loss” of the two dozen unit building, to use Fire Chief Gary Merwede’s words.
The scene of the fire Wednesday morning.
Sixty people, tenants of Mandy Management, were displaced due to the fire, including 14 children.
Fire Marshal Brian Dolan said the fire began in the first floor of the building — which Gibbs confirmed — and then spread to the second floor and consumed the entire attic and roof.
Nobody was injured in the fire. Tenants have not been able to return to the scene yet, Dolan said, because the building is “structurally unsafe.”
“The building will need to come down,” Mayor Lauren Garrett told the Independent late Wednesday afternoon. Structural engineers will examine the remains of the building Thursday to see whether and when tenants can reenter to retrieve belongings.
The community has put out a call for help for the families. Click here to donate money directly to a community fund that the town has established. Scroll to the end of the story for a list of items the families have requested, and times and locations for drop-offs.
Gibbs tells a fellow tenant where to get snacks while London avoids eating her own.
“We lost everything,” Gibbs told the Independent Wednesday morning while he fed his daughter Fruity Pebbles from a dining room table inside Hamden’s Clarion Hotel.
“My princess cat is dead,” added four-year old London, the youngest of Gibbs’ three children.
“Her cat was named Princess,” Gibbs explained. In addition to all of his family’s belongings, Gibbs’ 10-year-old pitbull, two bearded dragons, pet bunny, and six fish tanks were burned to ash.
“It’s tragic,” Gibbs said. “I’ve just been sulking and mopey around the hotel room.”
Gibbs had spent Monday buying flowers and jewelry for his loved ones. He and his girlfriend ended the night with an hours-long interview by the fire department.
“I still don’t know what happened,” he said.
Gibbs does have a theory. Recently, he said, Mandy Management had replaced a stove in his unit. “The wiring in the building just sucks,” Gibbs said. Maybe the stove could have caused an electrical fire, he proposed.
“I cannot respond to speculation about the cause of the fire,” Yudi Gurevitch of Mandy Management told the Independent.
“We have to wait for the outcome of the fire marshal’s report to understand what caused the fire. It’s a very tragic situation as 24 units are uninhabitable but thankfully, there was no loss of human life.
“Taking care of our tenants is our absolute top priority. We are fully engaged with the Red Cross to help them find suitable housing. This includes transferring them to units in our other properties. We have placed them in hotels and are paying their hotel bills. And, are doing whatever we can to support them during this time.”
Gibbs’ distrust of the local mega-landlord is deeper than the fire itself.
“I’ve been buying my own salt and putting it on the stairs,” after he fell on ice trying to get into his building this winter, Gibbs said. “They want their money every month,” but they don’t take care of the premises.
Now, Gibbs said, he’s just focused on taking care of himself and his family. The rest of his day, he said, would involve calling USPS, who he said have been “trying to deliver stuff to our place,” watching his daughter while his girlfriend shops for groceries and new clothes, and searching for a new apartment.
The most important thing, he said, is that “we can’t keep staying in this hotel.”
London has stayed busy for the past few days by painting with a kit her mother bought her after the fire ...
... and by creating new recipes, like orange-cranberry-apple beverages.
The town is putting up tenants in the Clarion for the next three weeks. (Mandy will ultimately be billed for the charge).
“It’s just not comfortable,” Gibbs said. Not because of the hotel’s facilities, he said, though his family of four is feeling cramped in their two-bed room, but because “everyone’s down.”
Within the next week, he said, he hopes to find a new home in Hamden — one not owned by Mandy Management.
“We know what we have to get,” he added. “Something that’s animal friendly.”
“We’ll make the house a home,” he said. “We can rebuild. It’ll be all right.”
Petrona and Owain Stewart: Blessed and never renting from Mandy again.
Petrona and Owain Stewart, meanwhile, said that their intended downpayment for a new house – which they kept in cash atop their dresser — had been burned along with everything else in her room.
The tenants are also staying at the Clarion, but spent Wednesday morning at the Keefe Community Center — where they were making a plan to secure rental assistance for the new apartment they’re currently searching for.
Keefe Center Program Manager Dr. Sharon Jones leafs through case files for those who were displaced at Warner — more than 60 people, she said. She added that she’s still working with individuals who lost their homes in a Savoy Street fire in January.
Pamela Jaynes, Jasmine Doughtery and Andrea Hutchinson with the more than $2,100 worth of donations they've received since the fire Monday night.
Despite all that they lost, Petrona Stewart still said, “it’s just things, nothing you worship.”
“The greatest thing is that nobody lost their life,” she said.
At the time of the fire, Stewart was driving around town dropping off meal orders. In addition to working as a caregiver in a group home and with Amazon Flex, Stewart is an Uber Eats deliverer.
On Monday night, her phone was blowing up with possible jobs. “An $8 ride, a $12 ride, a $14 ride,” she remembered.
“No, we’re gonna come home,” she recalled telling her husband, who was in the car with her. Then another message popped up on her phone: Her apartment complex had caught fire.
She got back just in time to see her own apartment, at the top floor, engulfed in flames.
“We’re staying at the hotel now, but we don’t wanna be there very long. I don’t wanna pay rent, I wanna pay a mortgage,” she said.
Now, instead of searching for houses, Stewart is searching for a way to get unemployment benefits.
The one perk, she said, is that she no longer has to live in a place owned by Mandy Management.
“I’m just done,” she stated.
There were problems with the bathroom fixtures, she said. The ceiling was drooping from water damage. The parking lot and stairs were always icy. (“I wanted to fall so badly,” she said, to spark a lawsuit.) “They don’t salt anything!” The next door neighbors would dump debris outside her window, she claimed, and Mandy wouldn’t do anything about it.
And once, after Mandy took out a light that once kept the back of the building bright, she said, her daughter was “attacked” on the property.
“They always say it’s fixed and it’s not fixed,” Stewart asserted.
“I used to rent out a house,” she remembered. “When you have tenants, you have to take care of them. Then they’ll take care of you. Mandy Management knows nothing about that.”
But, she said, ultimately “we live to see another day. When my friends call to ask me how I’m doing, I just say, I’m blessed.”
“Call me Positive Petrona,” she added with a grin.
“I’m just grateful for life,” she said, before qualifying:
“I will never rent from Mandy Management again. Not even if my life depended on it.”
Donations Requested
Following is a list of items families have requested. Donations can be dropped off at the Keefe Community Center , 11 Pine St., Wednesday 2/16 – Friday 2/18 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. You may also drop off these items on Tuesday, Feb. 22 between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. at the Clarion Hotel, 2260 Whitney Ave, Hamden. Items will be give out on Tuesday, Feb. 22.
Gently used/new clothes, all sizes; specifically: 2T clothes 3T clothes Medium sweatpants 7/8 pants 14/16 pants 32/30 pants 32 pants
Gently used/new jackets and hoodies, all sizes; specifically: XXXXL jacket
New underwear and socks; specifically: Boxers, sizes large-XXL Underwear, sizes 2T-XXXL
New footwear; specifically: Size 7 toddler shoes Size 7.5 shoes Size 8 shoes Size 9 ½ shoes Size 10 shoes Size 11 shoes
Hygiene items; specifically: Wipes Diapers Pull ups Floss Tampons Pads Body Wash Deodorant
Other Items: Art supplies New toys for ages 2 – 12 Apple phone chargers Snack food WaterJuice boxes Gift cards
For those wishing to make a monetary donation, it is now possible to donate to Hamden’s Community Services Gift Fund via the Town’s website at www.Hamden.com.
Look for the heart and click to donate.