RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- First National Apartment complex residents are still recovering from a basement fire that broke out at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1, during its annual fire safety system testing. Residents had to stay in hotels, but were reimbursed by Gates Hudson, the management company f or First National Apartments. On Friday, Sept. 4, three days after the fire, residents were able to reenter their units. Matt Cabaniss, the Vice President of Marketing for Gates Hudson, told 8News on Wednesday, Sept. 2 that he hoped residents would be able to regain access to their apartments on that night. He said that it had to be postponed due to "extensive damage" that was "extraordinarily difficult" to repair. ‘I’m wearing the same exact socks, underwear’: 50 residents remain without access to apartments after fire Cabaniss added that the biggest issue was fixing the water for the 159-unit, 18-story building, but once the water was fixed, residents could come back in. "It's been complicated," said Christian Jones, a resident of First National Apartments. "Some parts have been good. It's obviously good to have running water and to have air conditioning and be back in my own space, but there are definitely some weird things when we first moved in." Jones has been a resident of First National Apartments since 2022, and said the smell of gas still lingered in the building after residents moved back in on Friday. He also shared that the fire alarm went off on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 5, around 1 a.m. Gates Hudson told residents and 8News that it was a malfunction. Jones claimed that a second alarm went off around 4 a.m on Saturday. "And it wasn't quite the fire alarm," Jones explained. "It was just this very loud beeping sound, which everybody in the building kind of went downstairs and congregated because obviously we don't know what's going on and we didn't know what the situation was. And then after the fact, we received an email saying it was a false alarm at 1:00, but no reference to the wildest sound I had ever heard in that building." Cabaniss said Gates Hudson was investigating the cause behind that second alarm. Jones tells me consistent issues with the fire alarms aren’t new. People have been asking for, like, the fire alarm system to be fixed for a while now." Jones said. "No one (the fire department), like, brings a fire hose out or anything or extinguishes a fire. It's just like they come in for five minutes, then they leave. But, you know, that whole process takes like 35 to 40 minutes, and it always happens, like in the middle of the night." Jones said he’s noticed elderly residents struggling to make it up and down the stairs following false fire alarms. The building is 18 stories and was originally built around 1912. Cabaniss did not comment on how old the fire alarm system is or share a timeline for when the building will be back to normal. He shared that Gates Hudson's goal is to minimize disruption for residents and that it prioritizes the safety of residents, team members and crews. ...read more read less