WATCH ABOVE: Carey Marsden reports on why residents won’t be able to move into the facility until June.
TORONTO – Nearly 200 seniors who were displaced by a devastating fire at Fairview Lodge in Whitby are still waiting to move into the rebuilt facility as construction delays have pushed back the completion date by several months.
193 Fairview residents were evacuated when a fire burnt much of the facility to the ground in October. The blaze forced the evacuation of nearby homes and caused schools to keep students and staff inside.
Residents were supposed to move back into Fairview in October, but a series of delays have pushed that date farther and farther away.
“There’s been various dates. But for whatever reason there are delays in construction,” said Phil Cooper, whose wife was displaced by the fire.
For now, Cooper visits his wife every day at Hillsdale Terrace in Oshawa, tending to her needs and talking to her and the staff. They celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in January.
“I want to be here with her,” he said. “I think she knows I’m here with her in the mornings.”
Marcey Mae Wilson, an administrator for Fairview, couldn’t say what caused the delays, but told Global News that the building is expected to be done by mid-April, with residents moving in on June 2.
“There have been some delays in moving forward and where it is at now is that the region of Durham has been working very diligently with Bondfield to expedite a moving date,” Wilson said.
Bondfield Construction is the company responsible for building the new Fairview Lodge. No one from the company was available for an interview Friday.
However, a written statement said Bondfield “had to adapt” to challenges that became apparent only once the project started. The statement went on to say that “confidentiality obligations” prevent any further discussion of the delays.
– With files from Carey Marsden
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