FAIRVIEW, Tenn. (WTVF) — Steps are being made in the right direction at an apartment complex in Williamson County with an out-of-control rat problem.
Last week, NewsChannel 5 helped expose the hazardous living conditions in multiple units at Roundtree Manor Apartments in Fairview. Tenant Charity Taylor caught 31 rats in her second-floor apartment in just one week.
"You know I try to save, but the more I save the more I'm spending to fix this place up," Charity Taylor said.
After our initial reports, the State Fire Marshal's Office did several electrical safety inspections at units on the property. It is giving property management seven days to show the fire marshal there is a plan to fix things like faulty circuit breakers and worn-out wiring.
Additionally, a team of fire and building inspectors with the state installed smoke alarms across the property after discovering there weren't working detectors everywhere they should be. They installed at least 48 smoke alarms on Tuesday.
"The owners of this property should have already had smoke alarms installed in here, but being that we've got smoke alarms, I'm not going to leave here and someone have a fire and then lose a life. I couldn't live with myself," said Gary Farley, the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Fire Prevention and the Tennessee State Fire Marshal's Office.
The grant-funded program Get Alarmed Tennessee allowed the inspectors to put in free smoke alarms immediately. Since the program started in 2012, there have been 450 lives saved by the initiative.
If Roundtree Manor Apartments does not come up to code, the State Fire Marshal's Office could shut off the power and shut the place down.
