Residents trapped in apartments above after stairs are demolished

At this block of apartments – Maple Walk Apartments in Decatur, Georgia, in the US – the staircase is the only way to get to the apartments on the second floor.

Or it was, rather, until it was taken out on Monday morning, trapping some of the people in their apartments.

Some of the residents awoke to find the staircase being demolished, and a piece of paper on their doors saying they’d be out of action until Thursday – and no way down.

Reportedly, a few people had been tipped off, with some residents telling WSB-TV Atlanta that they had received a letter asking them to leave temporarily, as the stairs were in poor condition and beginning to lean to one side.

They were offered reimbursement for one night in a hotel, and free rent for the time that the repairs were taking place.  

It seems some of the other apartment-dwellers, however, had decided to stay, as wooden beams had been brought to shore up the stairs – but they weren’t notified that the demolition had begun.

The Fire Department had to come with ladders to help those trapped get out safely, before the work was finished the next day.

It’s not as isolated an incident as you might imagine, either – once the story had been posted on Reddit, several other people came forward with tales of their own disappearing stairs.

“This actually happened at my apartment complex about 2 years ago. They never left a note,” said one commenter, who had photographic evidence of the inconvenience. “Maintenance had to come by with a ladder to get us down. The stairs were back up that day.”

Another recalled experiencing it as a child – “All of us came home from school/work to find the stairs to our second storey home were gone”. They added that “just a heads-up would have sufficed”.

One poster recalled losing half the stairwell unexpectedly – “Happened to me at my last apt, but only the bottom half of the stairs were removed (landscaping?) No warning about it. Had to jump down to leave, and used a rope to climb back up.

“It sucked.”

/**/