All residents of Dunwoody apartment complex that exploded will be forced to move out

DUNWOODY, Ga. — All the residents of a Dunwoody apartment complex rocked by an explosion last week have been asked to move out by October 31.

A building at the Arrive Perimeter apartments exploded and partially collapsed on Sunday, injuring four people and displacing dozens.

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Residents of all 400 units were notified in an email Friday that they are going to have to vacate the property in just under six weeks. It’s unclear when they may be allowed to return, if at all.

“It has become apparent that we will not be able to quickly return gas service to our residents,” the email said. “We, unfortunately, cannot commit to a reasonable timeline to restore hot water, heat, or functional gas ranges, and without a clear date of that return of gas service, we feel that the prudent action is to vacate the property.”

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After the explosion, Dunwoody City Code officers ordered crews to shut down all natural gas service at the complex until a plumber could deem them safe to operate.

Atlanta Natural Gas operates and maintains the infrastructure that delivers natural gas to the complex, but does not maintain appliances or fuel lines inside customers’ properties.

Channel 2′s Christian Jennings talked to a resident who said the news residents will have to move is stressful.

“It’s really stressing, because you have to work and you have to manage all of this,” Deyvani Gupta said.

Shemetron Maxwell said she managed to get something locked down, but she won’t be able to move in as quickly as she had hoped.

“I immediately went searching and secured a location and was OK,” Maxwell said. “Then I got a call saying, ‘No, you don’t.’ They had double booked us.”

Maxwell said she will move her stuff into storage and cover her own expenses until the 23rd, when she moves in November.

Many residents said that while they planned to move away, the timeline is daunting.

“It’s nothing I wanted to do,” Maxwell said. “I just moved here in June and had finally gotten settled, and now this. It’s not easy. I haven’t told my daughter because she’s still in school.”

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Channel 2′s Elizabeth Rawlins talked a resident who said the smell of gas has become almost a normal part of living at the complex.

“This has been an ongoing issue,” Erik Wiley said. “A lot of residents have been complaining about smelling gas.”

Wiley said he called SCANA Energy a few months ago about the smell. SCANA confirmed that they dispatched crews from Atlanta Gas Light on March 29 to inspect a possible leak.

“They did detect gas and they were going to notify management,” Wiley said.

According to SCANA, there were no signs of a gas leak. But Atlanta Gas Light said that other than Sunday, they have no confirmed any calls from property management or from SCANA Energy.

“At this time, we have not identified any other calls to Atlanta Gas Light related to odor of gas complaints at the impacted locations,” the company said in a statement.

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