RISE Doro apartment complex structure deemed unsafe after fire, crews monitoring for flare-ups

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It’s now been over 24 hours since the fire started at the RISE Doro apartment complex and there’s still no word on what caused this fire. It’s something officials will be investigating but said it’s hard as they still can’t get into the building.

READ: Rise Doro fire: Part of apartment building may have collapsed, Jacksonville mayor and fire chief say

The 247-unit, $65 million project was nearly complete, now it’s unclear what a rebuilding process looks like so early into this process.

Mayor Donna Deegan said the building isn’t safe so there are concerns about people nearby as well as structures.

“In short order, as soon as we can do it, the wood framing in that building would be coming down, we’re concerned about the people in buildings nearby but also we don’t want to destroy someone’s structure,” Deegan said.

Firefighters have been battling it since about 9:30 p.m. Sunday Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Chief Keith Powers said they’re going to have ladders set up around the building overnight and for a few days.

Crews will be looking for any flare-ups so they can put them out. Powers mentioned there’s a possibility it could collapse but they’re not necessarily expecting that, he noted they’re concerned about the runoff into the river something the officials will be monitoring tomorrow as well.

READ: ‘Extraordinarily disappointing:’ Fire crews continue to battle hotspots at RISE Doro Apartments

“Those voids we can’t get to from outside, we’re going have to have the ladders positioned here for a couple of days and as fire shows itself, we will put it out, but because we can’t get into the voids we’re going to have to stay here and work with it until we are done or until demolition starts,” Chief Powers said.

Fire crews had to work from above and from the side of the building, due to the risk of collapse. Additionally, he noted voids in the building, which were not yet walled off during the construction phase, likely allowed the fire to spread more easily through the structure.

The RISE Dolo apartment complex had a sprinkler system in the complex but it didn’t activate, Mayor Deegan said that was because there had to be a pressure test right before the building would open, which was set to happen this upcoming week.

According to the 911 call Action News Jax obtained, a security guard said there was a crew in the building the night of the fire but had recently left. A spokesperson for RISE at the latest news conference said they had flooring experts laying tile on the bottom floor of the building and they were leaving when they heard crackling. The spokesperson for RISE said eight people were about to move in this coming weekend and those families have been offered other RISE properties to live in, some have taken them up on that offer.

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