Displaced fire victims face handicaps

XENIA, Ohio (WDTN) -
After a November fire forced more than 60 people out of their homes at Walter G. Sellers apartments in Xenia the management had to find places for their tenants to live.

At first Rusty Hull lived with his sister, but her home was not handicap accessible, so the Wallick Companies put him in the Foxglove apartments also in Xenia.  He told 2 NEWS On Assignment, "I agreed to this because at the time I didn't know what to do."

Turns out his unit at the Foxglove isn't handicap accessible either.  Hull's wheelchair is too wide to allow him into the bathroom so he uses a small pink tub to bathe like the ones you see at hospitals.

And that's not the worst of it.  Hull can't get out of the apartment if he has to. There's no ramp. "I'm not going to take a chance and fall and hurt myself you know because as big as I am if I fall on the ground I'm stuck," Hull said.

2 NEWS On Assignment called Xenia's fire chief to let him know it appeared Hull wouldn't be able to escape a fire here.  It didn't take long for Chief Kenneth Riggsby to arrive with his deputy chief.  

Chief Riggsby said for starters the'd make sure that the dispatch system would include a note that there were handicapped tenants living at Foxglove.

"Being handicapped yes he needs a ramp but there's no code that says because he's in a wheelchair he has to have a ramp," Riggsby explained.

Margaret Herald who also lived at Water G. Sellers at the time of the fire feels trapped as well.

Herald told 2 NEWS On Assignment, "I had a wheelchair that was electrical and I used it a lot. I could go down to do my laundry, go the bathroom, take showers, take my trash out. Here I'm stuck day after day."

The manager at Foxglove told me she didn't know about the challenges of the displaced tenants.  Wallick did.

"It's been a difficult situation finding accommodations that are workable for everyone and at the time it was the property manager's thought that he would be interested in being in an apartment where there were all the facilities of a home as opposed to just a place to sleep, said Stephanie Tresso, Wallick's spokesperson.

That's because it could be months before Rusty Hull is allowed to return to his home. However, with attention from 2 NEWS on Assignment Hull has choices.

Tresso said he can move into a hotel like some of the other tenants have or he can have a temporary ramp installed.

Margaret Herald's family has contacted the county for help to install a ramp in front of her apartment. When I asked Wallick's spokesperson who would pay for that, her response was "probably the taxpayers."