‘You need to fix it’: Stairwells in SWFL apartment deemed ‘dangerous’

Tenants living at Sunrise Towers in Fort Myers say they’re fed up after a flight of stairs collapsed last week.

“If you continue to pay rent here, more power to you but my mom, she has to go,” said Brittany, a Fort Myers resident who did not wish to give her last name. “She can’t live like this.”

For Brittany, it’s the last straw.

Tenants living at Sunrise Towers in Fort Myers say they’re fed up after a flight of stairs collapsed last week.

“It’s kids that come here everyday that run through these apartments and for stairway to fall down like that, somebody needs to take action,” she said.

After an emergency inspection of the property, inspectors deemed all five stairwells here dangerous. Two sets of stairs were closed in addition to the one that collapsed.

That means this property is not up to fire code.

“There’s a lot of stuff wrong with these apartments and I don’t know why the residents feel as if they don’t talk about it, something’s going to happen but you have to talk about it because if you continue to live like this, this is how they’re going to let you live,” she said.

The Fort Myers Fire Department is forcing management to hire security to constantly monitor this complex until things can get fixed.

People living here say change needs to happen quickly.

“You need to fix it,” Brittany said. “If people are paying their rent in these apartments, you need to be fixing things that need to be fixed.”

WINK News reached out to the city about previous stairwell inspections, but it’s now part of an ongoing investigation.

The third party who conducted the stairwell inspection on behalf of the city said corrosion and cracking is taking place under all five stairwells.

WINK News tried to speak with management, but they declined comment.

The city told WINK News it planned to meet with the complex management and fire department Monday afternoon.

MORE: Stairs collapse at issue-ridden Fort Myers apartment complex