Everything is slowly getting back to normal at the Conestoga Crest retirement home.
On Oct. 1 a fire at the home left one resident dead, two in hospital, and many others scrambling to find alternate living arrangements.
Now, just over three months later, most residents are back in their units.
“We just started moving everyone back in last week,” manager Gertie Schnieders said on Monday.
“We should be done by the end of this week.”
Extensive smoke and water damage forced residents out of the facility longer than first expected.
But, Schnieders said, on Dec. 31 the home received the go ahead from the township’s building department and on Jan. 2 it had an inspection by the Mapleton Fire Department.
She added the respective transitions back into the home on Wood Street have gone very smoothly.
In fact, she expected just one unit not to be occupied by the end of this week – the one where the fire started, claiming the life of 82-year-old resident Herman Deen.
Fire Chief Rick Richardson has said there is still no official word from the Ontario Fire Marshal’s Office on the cause of the blaze.
However, he said in a previous interview a heating blanket in Deen’s room likely started the fire.
