A woman was hospitalized after jumping from a sixth-floor window and a police officer was treated for smoke inhalation Sunday night as a two-alarm fire tore through an apartment at Peace Lake Towers, a senior housing complex in New Orleans East. Firefighters found the woman in mud and shrubbery below the unit where the blaze started, and her injuries were described as limited.
The call came in at 7:53 p.m. on October 4, with crews arriving at 8:01 p.m. and heading directly to the sixth floor of the building's east wing, according to the City of New Orleans. As reported by Fox 8, New Orleans EMS took the woman to a hospital for evaluation after she was found outside the building. A New Orleans police officer had helped evacuate residents before firefighters even arrived, and was later treated for smoke inhalation, the station reported.
Firefighters managed to contain the fire to the apartment where it started, which the fire department has attributed to an oven, per Fox 8's report. Even so, crews evacuated the rest of the building as a precaution, a group that included several residents who are disabled or have limited mobility. The fire was brought under control by 8:31 p.m., with the response ultimately involving 20 fire department units and 55 personnel.
Why the Response Scaled Up So Quickly
The city's second-alarm contingent was dispatched specifically to help evacuate residents with limited mobility and to return unaffected tenants to their units once it was safe, according to the same city press release. Utility provider Entergy was also called in to assess power restoration to the damaged wing. The sixth floor and several floors below are expected to be temporarily uninhabitable because of smoke and water damage, and the American Red Cross has been called in to help displaced residents, though the number of people displaced was still unknown at the time of the fire department's report.
Peace Lake Towers is a 131-unit HUD Section 202/8 senior housing community that provides independent living for low-income adults 62 and older, along with a limited number of younger residents with disabilities, according to Care Changes. Individual units are equipped with medical pull-cord emergency stations in bedrooms and bathrooms, keyless electronic entry, smoke detectors, and fire sprinkler coverage, per the same listing.
A Building With a Troubled Track Record
Sunday's fire is not the first time Peace Lake Towers has drawn scrutiny over safety conditions. The property failed a federal health and safety evaluation with a score of 24 out of 100 during a January 2018 HUD inspection, following tenant complaints of broken ovens, rodent infestations, and security lapses, according to an Associated Press investigation reported by WWL-TV. HUD considers scores below 60 to be failing.
In September 2021, following Hurricane Ida, the city's Health Department, Fire Department, and EMS conducted emergency evacuations at the complex after determining it was unfit for occupancy because generator failures had left elderly residents trapped, the city previously reported. When tenants were finally allowed back seven months later in April 2022, they told WWL-TV they still had concerns about active construction hazards, mold, water-damaged hallways, and blocked trash chutes.
The property's owner, The Millennia Companies, closed on $27.5 million in financing in December 2020 to acquire and renovate the complex, with plans that included upgrades to electrical, mechanical, heating, cooling, and security systems, according to the company's own materials. But in April 2024, HUD issued a five-year debarment order barring Millennia from entering into new federal housing contracts over portfolio-wide financial and safety noncompliance, as reported by the Mississippi Free Press.
A Statewide Pattern of Failing Inspections
The challenges at Peace Lake Towers also fit into a broader statewide trend. A nationwide review of HUD inspection data published by WWL-TV found that 12 percent of federally subsidized housing inspections in Louisiana resulted in failing scores between 1999 and 2018, the highest failure rate of any state in the country. That history adds weight to questions about oversight now facing a complex where vulnerable seniors were once again displaced by fire, this time while crews worked to keep the damage contained to a single floor.
