By Katie Perkowski

Last Wednesday’s fire at the Greg Page Apartments was caused by discarded smoking material, said the UK fire marshal.

Some of the damaged apartments were cleaned out and six of the residents who had to be relocated were able to move back into their original place, said Ben Crutcher, vice president for auxiliary services.

Two residents remain displaced due to structural damage caused by fighterfighters’ efforts to put out the fire last week.  One resident was  relocated to a different apartment building at Greg Page and another to Cooperstown Apartments, Crutcher said.

“It’ll probably be a few months before we can get all the repairs done,” he said.

The Greg Page buildings do not have fire sprinklers, according to UK’s Web site. Sprinklers would have helped stop the fire from spreading quickly, said UK Fire Marshal Greg Williamson.

The buildings, built in the 1970s, are considered outdated, Crutcher said.

Currently, the Greg Page buildings are earmarked to be torn down to make place for a new complex, he said.

UK has a 26-year student housing development plan, according to a Kernel article written in June.  In an earlier article last April, the renovation was set to cost $588 million, and the Greg Page buildings would be torn down in 2015.

After completing the renovations, the new buildings will not only have fire sprinklers, but also cameras on the exterior of the apartments and in the parking lots for added safety, Crutcher said.

The Greg Page buildings were not designed to last more than 20 or 25 years and they are now 30 years old, Crutcher said.

“They’ve sort of outlived their useful life,” he said.