CLEVELAND, Ohio — The owners of Cleveland’s Rainbow Terrace Apartments say conditions inside the building did not cause the explosion and fire that killed one man and injured others in June — even as Cleveland fire officials continue to investigate the blast.
Michigan-based American Community Developers also announced Tuesday they will demolish the 44-unit building as early as February and hope to rebuild it and reopen it in 2027.
The owners’ announcement comes as a complex investigation involving Cleveland firefighters, state officials and the natural gas company Enbridge is still ongoing.
An explosion and subsequent fire on June 23 destroyed 44 units and displaced more than 120 residents at East 70th Street and Garden Valley Avenue in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood.
Cordale Sheffield, 30, died after rescuing a child from the fire, and two children were seriously burned. It caused $3.5 million in damage.
Months after the fire, city housing inspectors cited other apartments in the Rainbow Terrace complex for widespread maintenance and safety issues.
American Community Developers said an expert it hired had found a leak in the natural gas line that served the building, but no other agency has confirmed that expert’s findings.
Spokesmen for Cleveland Fire and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that the fire is still under investigation, and the fire’s cause is undetermined.
Fire Lt. Mike Norman said remnants of the natural gas pipes that were destroyed during the fire are being tested in January to see if a gas leak can be detected. Investigators previously tested the natural gas pipes at the apartment complex that weren’t destroyed and did not find any leaks.
Both a security guard and a maintenance worker told fire investigators that they had smelled gas earlier that day. Norman said the explosion’s size led investigators to believe it was a gas explosion, but where the gas came from and how it ignited are still unknown.
Enbridge, the area’s natural gas utility, said initial testing uncovered gas leaks at the apartment complex, but its unclear if those leaks existed before the fire or if they were caused by the blast.
American Community Developers said in a statement Tuesday the fire’s cause “will be determined later through the appropriate legal process.” Because of that, the building can be demolished and rebuilt, according to the owners.
“With so many people impacted, we understand the community’s frustration with how long this process has taken,” Gerald Krueger, president of American Community Developers, said in the statement. “We have worked carefully and deliberately to ensure that a thorough investigation was completed before proceeding. Based on the conclusions of our expert, we are now able to move ahead.”
Cleveland’s Department of Building and Housing condemned the building three days after the fire and ordered its demolition.
Two months later, inspectors from Building and Housing returned and found several code violations in more than 150 apartment units in four other buildings in the Rainbow Terrace complex.
Inspectors documented a wide range of safety and maintenance problems inside apartments and common areas, including nonfunctioning smoke detectors, damaged or missing doors and windows, exposed electrical wiring, broken lighting fixtures and water-damaged ceilings and walls, according to the violation notices.
In several cases, inspectors found smoke alarms that were missing batteries or not working at all.
The reports also described deteriorating stairways and hallways, with broken stair treads, loose handrails, missing floor tiles and inadequate lighting in common areas used for emergency exits.
Asked about the violations, Blake Hunter, a representative from Independent Management Services, a Michigan-based development firm that manages Rainbow Terrace Apartments, said the company would work with the city to resolve any violations.
Councilman Richard Starr told cleveland.com Tuesday protocols need to be put in place to avoid devastating fires like the one at Rainbow Terrace in the future and to make sure all parties — whether that’s the building’s owners, city officials or federal agencies — are held accountable.
He said residents had been complaining about issues at Rainbow Terrace before the fire.
After the fire, displaced families complained about the conditions they faced. In an online post, Kyanna Bell, the mother of Tyrone and Azaria Tate, said she has fought for her children after they were seriously burned. Months after the blast, the children are slowly recovering.
“I have been trying, since June 23rd, to secure safe, adequate and trauma-informed housing for myself and my children,” she wrote. “But every step of the process has been met with barriers, delays, and dead ends. I am exhausted. I am overwhelmed. … My children cannot heal in instability.”
Starr said while many apartments track complaints from residents and issue work orders or email updates, people in low-income housing often don’t have a paper trail to document their concerns, but they should.
American Community Developers said the new building will be two stories tall instead of three, and each unit will have individual entrances instead of shared hallways, which it says will enhance privacy and security.
All former residents displaced by the fire will be given the first opportunity to return to the new apartments once completed, American Community Developers said.
