DALLAS — It was some of the most amazing footage Dallas has seen in a while after an apartment building inside the Meadows at Ferguson in the northeast part of the city caught fire last week.
Video from Dallas Police body cameras shows officers going door-to-door at the building, guiding residents to safety in the parking lot.
Cell phone video caught residents on the third floor of the building, trapped by the flames inside their homes, jumping down onto mattresses below.
In one instance, a mother dropped her toddler to a total stranger from the third floor. It was a heart-stopping video that quickly went viral.
In all, more than 40 people were displaced—but thankfully no one was seriously injured.
The cause of the fire may never be known because the damage was so bad that investigators with Dallas Fire-Rescue couldn’t enter the building before it was demolished.
But in court documents filed Thursday, the city laid out several serious allegations against the owners of the complex, Eyal Dallas Holdings LLC saying this property has had serious issues with fire code violations in the past.
In those documents, the city claims that the “fire sprinkler system in the building did not turn on in response to the fire.”
It also said that inspectors found several other fire hazards at the complex after the fire was put out.
Those hazards include some windows being nailed shut in two units, which could prevent a resident from escaping a potential fire.
Other hazards that were found included, “missing escutcheon rings and sprinkler heads, as well as painted or taped sprinkler heads, in violation of Dallas Fire Code Section 901.6”
The court filing also said that the water pressure gauge in the riser rooms of each building at the complex indicated low water pressure.
Finally, inspectors said that they found either missing or inoperable smoke detectors in all the buildings and a vast majority of units.
The filing was made in relation to a court case between the city and the owners of the complex dating back to last year concerning a number of issues at the Meadows at Ferguson—some being fire code violations.
In May of this year, the owners entered into an Agreed Partial Temporary Injunction with the court that said the complex would shape up its act and address a number of fire code violations found by the city.
The filing today was made by the city saying that the Eyal Dallas Holdings LLC was in contempt of that agreement after inspectors looked at the complex following the fire.
An attorney for Eyall Dallas Holdings LLC said that his clients deny any allegation made by the city today, but said it is working diligently with the court to address concerns.
Attorneys for the city asked a judge today to have all tenants removed from the complex because it is unsafe, but instead, that judge ordered for the complex to address any fire code violations within 7 days.