Exclusive: Fire department called in after sewage fills TCH building hallway
Posted November 1, 2014 11:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Residents of a Toronto Community Housing building say they’ve had enough after a sewage backup caused toilet water and feces to spilled into the hallway.
“This week alone we have had this happen at least five times,” resident Prunett Williams told CityNews. “The smell is unbearable. Walking around just it’s not comfortable.”
Raw sewage flooded into the main floor hallway at 145 Neptune Drive, in the Bathurst Street and Highway 401 area, Saturday night.
“You can see the toilet paper, pieces of feces. You can see what people have had in the washroom when they flush,” said Williams.
The sewage also flooded some apartments, damaging carpets and furniture.
Concerns over what exposure to the raw sewage could be doing to their health forced some residents to call in the fire department.
“It’s bacteria, live viruses, feces so it’s not a very good situation,” acting platoon chief Karl Betlam explained.
A bus was brought in to house those affected by the backup.
“We’re bringing the people out, decontaminating their feet, putting them in the bus and then Toronto Housing is going to have to clean up the apartments, decontaminate the apartments,” said Betlam.
A plumber and cleaners were called to the building by TCH but some residents say this has been happening on and off for months, even years, and nothing has been done to permanently fix the problem.
“Every time we tell them something it goes in one ear and out the other. They don’t care,” resident Josephine said. “It’s dirty I’ve been living here five years and that’s all I’ve been getting back up in my stink. And in the month of September I had 6 inches of water in my apartment.”
Attempts by CityNews to contact TCH for a comment were unsuccessful.
Fire officials say a representative from the Ministry of the Environment was also on hand to assess the situation.
