{"id":949,"date":"2019-01-23T13:33:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T18:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/?p=949"},"modified":"2019-01-23T16:55:08","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T21:55:08","slug":"public-housing-complex-evacuated-two-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/23\/public-housing-complex-evacuated-two-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Housing Complex Evacuated, Two Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 400 people were evacuated from a public housing complex last Thursday after finding multiple gas leaks that established an &#8220;imminent danger to life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday evening, many residents of Allen Benedict Court reported smelling gas in their homes. Columbia Fire Department responded, and found numerous gas leaks coming from stoves and water heaters.<\/p>\n<p>The closure was announced at a news conference on Friday, with fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins calling the leaks &#8220;significant&#8221; and that the main gas line to the property would need to be shut off while officials investigated.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: Tenants are beginning to receive this letter. We\u2019re expecting an update here shortly. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wis10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@wis10<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k1Sqe7wwKO\">pic.twitter.com\/k1Sqe7wwKO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Caroline Hecker (@CHecker_WIS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CHecker_WIS\/status\/1086306295093837825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 18, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Gilbert Walker is the executive director of Columbia&#8217;s housing authority. He states that people have called &#8220;frequently&#8221; with complaints about gas leaks in the housing complex. The fire department stated that they have responded to at least seven reports in the last year.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Gas is something that we take very seriously, not only in Allen Benedict Court, but in all of our facilities,&#8221; Gilbert said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One resident, during an interview with\u00a0<em>The State<\/em> said he regularly kept windows open in his apartment after &#8220;nauseating odors&#8221; sent him to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Two men were found dead in separate units on Thursday morning, but policed haven&#8217;t confirmed whether the deaths are tied to the gas leaks. They do not suspect foul play at this time.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have stated that they do not yet have a timeline for reopening the complex.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 400 people were evacuated from a public housing complex last Thursday after finding multiple gas leaks that established an &#8220;imminent danger to life.&#8221; On Thursday evening, many residents of Allen Benedict Court reported smelling gas in their homes. Columbia Fire Department responded, and found numerous gas leaks coming from stoves and water heaters. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,119],"tags":[420,421,223,52,426,424,425,427,422,428,105,423],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949\/revisions\/951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecolumbiaobserver.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}