Riverwalk residents band together

About five years ago, Tony DeFazio was a hired cheerleader for the Riverwalk at Millennium.

The luxury apartment complex was under construction on Conshohocken's riverfront, and DeFazio was working for a public-relations agency hired by developer J. Brian O'Neill to whip up enthusiasm for life on a former industrial site.

DeFazio is in the advocacy role again - this time as a resident of the fire-ravaged complex who, though not among the burned-out, has his share of concerns about life there going forward.

Chief among those concerns, shared by many, are how the Riverwalk was built and what can be done to better protect it from fire.

DeFazio hopes to help channel all of the anxiety, frustration and confusion lingering after last week's ferocious blaze - one that unfathomably caused no major injuries in a complex of nearly 400 residents - into a calm and cogent effort to get answers and rebuild a community.

"These people need a voice," DeFazio said of his neighbors Wednesday. About half of them lost their apartments and everything in them in the eight-alarm fire, which destroyed two of the complex's four residential buildings.

Last night, in response to a Facebook outreach coordinated by DeFazio, nearly 100 residents gathered at a health and fitness center one block from Riverwalk to begin setting an action agenda.

They sat barefoot - the only condition for using the room at Ryah Yoga & Health. Some cried; most just vented.

A medical student, about the loss of thousands of dollars in texbooks two weeks before a critical certification exam.

A saleswoman, about alarms that she said had been barely audible.

And person after person, about worries that O'Neill would begin rebuilding without safeguards to prevent a similar construction fire.

There was even survivors' guilt. "I feel almost embarrassed talking about rent concessions when people lost everything," said Negin Naraghi, a tenant in one of the unscathed buildings.

The meeting ended after 11/2 hours, with participants agreeing to identify the issues they want the group to tackle first.

While the Aug. 13 fire - one of the worst in recent Montgomery County history - has already prompted litigation, DeFazio said his effort "is not an antagonistic thing."

"We're working proactively and constructively," said DeFazio, who is still in public relations but whose post-fire work is "100 percent volunteer.

". . . Until this process plays itself out, I'm not placing blame anywhere."

Others have.

Investigators have determined that molten metal and sparks from a welding torch at a construction site next to the Riverwalk caused the conflagration, which took 300 firefighters nearly six hours to control.

The initial fire burned so hot because the 309-unit Stables at Millennium - owned by O'Neill's King of Prussia development company, O'Neill Properties Group - did not have a functioning fire-suppression system. In essence, it was a five-story lumber shell that burned fast and spread to the two closest Riverwalk buildings, which were also wood-framed.

A group of Riverwalk residents Monday sued O'Neill, Riverwalk property manager Bozzuto Management Co., and the construction companies that worked at the Stables site.

Among their allegations are that safety measures were ignored and that the Riverwalk buildings should have had firewalls and sprinkler systems that extended to the attics and roofs, where the fire caught and rapidly spread.

Conshohocken officials have said O'Neill followed every fire and building code the borough required for the Riverwalk. O'Neill sold the project after it was built to JPMorgan Asset Management Holdings for $87.5 million in 2006.

Riverwalk resident Jonathan Zahler is among those grateful for any effort to help ensure he never lives through a repeat of last week.

Like DeFazio, the 28-year physician and his wife, Megan, were among the lucky ones, their apartment untouched by the flames. Although Zahler can't say enough about the efficiency and helpfulness of rescue workers and aid organizations, he said it was apparent that "things could be better."

That includes getting fire engines to the scene faster, Zahler said. With the fire starting at the peak of the evening rush, reaching the Riverwalk was a problem on Conshohocken's notoriously traffic-choked waterfront-area streets, firefighters said.

It is among the many questions with which DeFazio hopes to engage borough leaders, Bozzuto officials, and possibly even the man for whom he used to work but to whom he hasn't talked in more than three years: O'Neill.

"The question is 'What?' moving forward," DeFazio said. "What are [they] going to do to ensure the welfare . . . of the residents here?"

The U.S. Small Business Administration will brief residents and businesses affected by the Riverwalk at Millennium fire on low-interest disaster loans at 7 p.m. Monday at the Montgomery County Public Safety Training Campus, 1175 Conshohocken Rd., Conshohocken.

Under this week's federal disaster declaration, low-interest federal loans are available to homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofit organizations whose property was damaged or destroyed.

Homeowners and renters are eligible for loans up to $40,000 to repair or replace damaged or destroyed personal property. Small businesses and most private nonprofit organizations can apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans to help meet working-capital needs caused by the disaster, whether or not the business suffered physical property damage.

The Disaster Loan Outreach Center will open to the public at 10 a.m. Monday at the Public Safety Training Campus. It will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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