Residents claim to be without power days before apartment fire in North Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Copper Tree Village apartment residents have no place to go after they watched everything they own carried out, covered in smoke and water damage.

Resident Michelle said, "People are going to have heat strokes. You know what I'm saying. When we got over here this is what we saw. This is what it is."

The fire is just another blow to what residents say they've been dealing with for months at the apartment complex.

Repeated power outages from one end of the building to another have been non-stop.

"Everyone wants to live accordingly, at least decent, and for the lights to go out twice. They went out Friday. We didn't have lights on our side," said Michelle.

Residents say their complaints to management go back months.

"No air conditioning, all the food goes bad, it's just terrible," said fire victim Berthenia Williams.

The early morning fire destroyed four units and several family members had to jump for their lives from a second story window.

Fire investigators have not named an official cause but residents suspect burning candles families were using in the dark.

"They had to have a candle, they couldn't see," said Michelle.

But they say the problems here should be clear.

"I hope management condemns the apartments and rebuilds them. Evidently there's an electrical problem somewhere. It shouldn't be a problem day to day with lights," said Williams.

Eyewitness News made repeated attempts to get answers from the apartment management on any plans to address the power outages but so far they have not issued a response.

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