UNIVERSAL CITY, Texas – An apartment fire in Universal City left 11 units completely destroyed by the fire and an additional 53 units with smoke and water damage, according to a Universal City spokesperson.
The fire happened at the Falcon Ridge Apartments on Aviation Boulevard, just northeast of San Antonio.
Saraya Anderson was one of the tenants who lost everything in the fire.
“I saw it from the highway, just the gray plumes of smoke, and then as we pulled up, I realized it was my building,” Anderson said. “I was devastated.”
In the days after the fire, Anderson retained attorney Jon Powell, who represents fire victims.
“The apartment complex required the tenants to purchase apartment renters’ insurance through the complex itself,” Powell said. “Now, come to find out after the fire, that policy did not cover the contents. So now Saraya is left without any compensation for all the contents that she’s lost.”
Powell said this is the first time in 27 years he has seen a renters’ insurance policy that does not cover a tenant’s belongings.
KSAT spoke with a woman in the Falcon Ridge apartment office who identified herself as the community director of the apartments.
She said the required renters’ insurance only covers the items inside the apartment provided by the complex.
The community director said all tenants were made aware of this when they signed the lease and agreed to the insurance policy.
She also said tenants are able to add their own insurance policy on top of the apartment’s required one.
However, Anderson was not aware of this and is now concerned.
“I never though something like this would happen to me or my apartments, my community,” Anderson said. “Hundreds of dollars worth of clothes, thousands (of dollars) of shoes, I just replenished my apartment with toiletries just everything, I literally just replenished at the beginning of the month.”
A Universal City spokesperson said they expect to have the report finalized soon and reveal the cause of the fire.
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