![\"Residents](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TOS-L-building-unstable-evacuated-0320-3.jpg\")
Residents outside The Rialto apartments in Dr. Phillips with their belongings packed into suitcases after being evacuated from the apartment that morning after signs of structural instability were found. (Silas Morgan\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\nMore than 350 people were hurriedly evacuated from an Orange County apartment complex Thursday morning after a panicked resident called 911 to report \u201cpopping\u201d sounds, a front door that wouldn\u2019t open and her fear the five-story building might collapse.<\/p>\n
Orange County Fire Rescue workers had to break down that woman\u2019s door to rescue her and discovered cracks and other damage throughout the building.<\/p>\n
Officials decided to evacuate all the residents of The Rialto apartments on Sand Lake Road in Dr. Phillips because of those signs of \u201cstructural instability,\u201d Fire Rescue said.\n<\/p>\n
The building with about 200 apartments and 358 residents is now off-limits until a structural engineer hired by the property owner can evaluate it, agency officials said.<\/p>\n
Residents outside The Rialto apartments in Dr. Phillips with their belongings packed into suitcases after being evacuated from the apartment that morning after signs of structural instability were found. (Silas Morgan\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
William Farhat, an agency division chief, said firefighters responded to the apartment around 5 a.m. after the resident called 911.<\/p>\n
They initially evacuated that portion of the complex and then contacted county building inspectors, who found other signs of problems and recommended a full evacuation. Firefighters found cracks around several doors and had to force some of those them open to free residents, as they had with the 911 caller, Farhat said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very inconvenient for them and we understand that, but there\u2019s no other option,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only thing we could do at this point is to take the safest approach and evacuate them and keep them safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The apartment complex was built in 2014, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
It advertises itself as \u201cone of Orlando\u2019s premier residential experiences\u201d that \u201coffers homes with sweeping views of Spring Lake and high-end amenities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The apartment\u2019s corporate office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n
Farhat said fire rescue conducted its annual inspection of the apartment in September and found no structural damage at the time. But firefighters saw signs of damage Thursday on all five of the apartment\u2019s floors. Officials do not yet know what caused the damage.<\/p>\n
Following the initial evacuation, residents were escorted back into the apartment to quickly retrieve their belongings. A stream of people left the apartment around noon carrying suitcases, with sheriff\u2019s deputies and Lynx employees helping.<\/p>\n
Kimberly Robertson and her best friend woke \u201cin a panic\u201d when firefighters began loudly knocking on their door around 6:30 a.m. They thought someone was trying to break in, but then heard firefighters telling them the building could collapse.<\/p>\n
The two quickly packed, grabbed their dog and later were escorted back in by deputies to retrieve more belongings.<\/p>\n
The two were still in their pajamas, with Robertson wearing a robe, around noon as they packed items into their car and prepared to head to a hotel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got each other. We will figure it out,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a little sleep over in the hotel. It\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melvin Orama, who has lived at The Rialto for over two years, also was shocked by the morning\u2019s events. He said building maintenance has always been on point, and he has never seen any damage.<\/p>\n
When firefighters knocked on his door to tell him to evacuate, he at first thought someone was trying to scam him into leaving so they could take his belongings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, I don\u2019t know what to do. Like, where are we going to go?\u201d he said. \u201cWhat am I supposed to pack? Is this going to be for a day, for two days, for a whole week, permanently?\u201d<\/p>\n
Orama, who lives at The Rialto with his mother, said he was escorted back into the apartment to retrieve his mother\u2019s medication. He then spent an hour on the phone with relatives trying to coordinate next steps. They will be staying with relatives in Port St. Lucie. He is concerned about what will happen to his lease.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to tell me if you\u2019re going to end my lease contract and I\u2019m not going to be penalized for renting someone somewhere else, right?\u201d he said. \u201cBecause I, we, need to move on. We have life, we have work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orange County\u2019s Office of Emergency Management, Visit Orlando, and the American Red Cross said they are working to secure hotel accommodations for displaced residents. Initially, Lynx provided temporary, on-site shelter from the cold weather, according to a news release from Orange County Fire Rescue.<\/p>\n
Several hotels in the area are offering discounted rates to displaced residents including Rosen Hotels & Resorts, Doubletree Theme Park Resort, and Courtyard by Marriott, the release said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 350 people were hurriedly evacuated from an Orange County apartment complex Thursday morning after a panicked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[112,28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,109],"class_list":["post-198281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}