GREENSBORO, N.C. — We're three weeks shy of the day a fire claimed the lives of five refugee children in Greensboro.
RELATED: Summit Ave. Apartments Where 5 Kids Died In Fire Still Not Up To Code After Several Missed Deadlines
The fire broke out at the Summit Ave Apartments on May 12, 2018.
Investigators say the fire was a result of a cooking accident, but an inspection later revealed there were no working smoke detectors in the unit.
The City of Greensboro then found more than 800 code violations at the Summit Avenue apartments.
We're talking mold, sewage problems, piles of rats, and general filth.
41 units were later condemned. Those living in the condemned units moved with the help of refugee advocates.
The second of three meetings about the Summit Ave apartments was held on Tuesday night by the 'Summit-Cone Families' organization.
The meetings are a way for community leaders to gather and come up with ways to prevent something like this from ever happening again. Organizers gave us an idea of where they stand nearly one year after the deadly fire.
"There were lots of really good ideas," facilitator and UNCG Professor Daniel Rhodes said. "I don’t know if I want to share them because we’re at the point now where we’re just working through what happened and how can we move forward in a positive manner."
RELATED: Summit Avenue Apartments Move-Out Date Quickly Approaching; Volunteers Help Refugees Pack Up
The group is working a set of recommendations to bring to City leaders.
"We’ll have some sort of a document or set of recommendations, but this is a process-oriented kind of approach so we want to trust the process," facilitator and UNCG Professor Jeremy Rinker said.
The meetings are also about healing.
"We are very cognizant of people feeling as if we’ve talked, and talked, and talked for a year about this and nothing has come of it," Rinker said. "My feeling is that talk is necessary in order for healing to happen and change to come, you have to have dialogue."
A refugee advocate, a nonprofit worker and friend of the family - Franca Jalloh, says she was preparing the children's green cards before they died.
She still has them in her office because she says the parents can't bear to look at them.
"I do have their green cards which they were very excited about applying for when they were alive and I do have those documents in my office right now as we speak," Jalloh said. "They asked me to hold onto the cards because they didn’t know what to do with it at this point."
She said the parents of the five children are 'surviving' day-by-day. Jalloh said the meetings about Summit Avenue have been positive.
"This was wonderful it was a space we could all express ourselves, a space we could talk about ways our community can move forward and at the same time it made us feel hopeful that people are listening."
They'll hold another meeting about the Summit Avenue apartments on May 11, the day before the one year anniversary of the deadly fire.
