WATERBURY, Conn. — Firefighters investigating reports of a carbon monoxide detector going off found a dead body Wednesday morning.
Just after 10 a.m., the Waterbury Fire Department was responding to 144 Grove St. for reports of a carbon monoxide detector going off. But when they did a sweep of the building, police say they found a dead body inside.
Waterbury Police are reporting that it was an adult male, found in a common area in the building.
Everyone was evacuated and eventually, firefighters deemed it was safe for them to go back inside.
Now, the medical examiner is looking into the cause of death for the man that was found.
However, tenants say what happened on Wednesday is only the tip of the iceberg for problems in the Section 8 apartment building.
"I'm feeling extremely grateful that my fiancé caught the alarm and called the fire department quick enough," said Robert Crowle, who has lived at 144 Grove St. for more than three years.
Crowle and his fiancé were the ones who made the initial 911 call.
"I was dizzy, my wife had a very bad headache," Crowle said.
She was sent to the hospital, but was released.
Crowle said what happened on Wednesday is an indication as to the living conditions in the building. He said he's complained about carbon monoxide problems in his apartment building in the past.
"The living conditions are terrible. You know, the maintenance is left up to you. A lot of the problems they say they'll take care of, requests, inspections, whatever, whatever, just never happens," Crowle said.
Other tenants who did not want to go on camera reported similar concerns. They say there's issues with the security of the building, with the front door constantly being broken. They also mentioned they've found feces, urine, and even blood in many of the common areas because there are squatters who go in and out of the building. They sent photos to FOX61 of the things previously mentioned.
FOX61 brought these concerns to the property manager, who works for CK Management LLC. He didn't want to go on camera, but he did respond to some of the claims from the tenants.
The representative admits there have been security issues with the building, with tenants letting people inside who shouldn't be there. He said they're working on installing cameras to help with the problem.
As for the carbon monoxide leak, he said, "We believe it’s because of the weather change that there was a carbon monoxide leak. We are committed to fix the boiler immediately."
He said a company was coming to fix the problem immediately and it should be complete by Wednesday night.
He also went on to say, "As far as we know, this is the first time we’ve had a carbon monoxide issue in this building. As always, as with all our properties that we manage, we're there for the tenants and we are going to take care of everything as quickly and as efficiently as possible."
FOX61 reached out to the health department and police to see if they've responded to this property with any issues in the past. They could not immediately provide any answers.
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