SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nearly 200 apartment units within the Greenfair Apartment complex in Sacramento were without air conditioning from Friday until Monday during a record-breaking heat wave over the weekend in Sacramento.
The independent living complex houses seniors ages 62 and older.
Before the repair, Greenfair resident Valerie Brown was ready to stay with family.
“I’ll have to stay with my sister for a while, they’re open to that," said Brown, who lives on the third floor of Tower 2 within the complex. "I don’t know what other people are going to do. They might not have that option.”
At the time, she was worried about her two dogs and said people's health and safety were at risk.
"We’re all old, some are frail," Brown explained. "I mean, I can’t live in the heat. I have health issues too."
A Greenfair Apartments staff member told ABC10 that one of the chiller units on the roof of the tower overheated on Friday, causing Tower 2 apartment air conditioning units to malfunction. They said residents were sent notices that explained the issue and suggested people be picked up by relatives or friends until the issue was fixed or to leave their doors open to get cooler air from the hallway and to gather in common spaces that have working A/C.
Brown said the hallway air wasn’t working Sunday night either.
"So we were just sweltering all night," Brown explained. "I don’t know if it was all the floors or just our floor."
Apartment staff later emailed ABC10, stating, "Please be assured we do not take this situation lightly, we had staff on-site until 9:00 PM Saturday night going door-to-door talking to residents... I can't begin to tell you how we stress about the well being of our residents during these times. By the way - no one went to the dining room to take advantage of the cooling area."
SMUD also notified ABC10 that the issue had been resolved and said two complex towers at Greenwood Apartments had had HVAC issues before.
Continue the conversation with Barbara on Facebook.