The state’s newest but now badly fire- and water-damaged veterans home won’t reopen this year, an Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs official said on Thursday.
A reconstruction timeline following the April fire at the Bennie G. Adkins State Veterans Home in Enterprise is still being developed and more information should be available next week, Beverly Williams, deputy attorney general for the department, told a panel of state lawmakers.
“It is going to be a while,” Williams told the Legislative Contract Review Committee about the work that needs to be done. “This was a significant event. The fire itself impacted a large portion of the utility section of the home. So the kitchen is gone, the laundry room is gone, the utility room is gone.”
A massive fire broke out about six months after the opening of the about $60 million, 182,000 square-foot facility. It was built for 200 residents, but held about half that number at the time of the fire.
The fire was in the ceiling of the facility and water used to extinguish it caused “significant damage to almost the entire home,” Williams said.
The fire was ruled accidental. Officials said contractors were working on vents on the roof over the kitchen when the fire started.
The ADVA has been using an existing construction contract on the new building for remediation work.
“Then our contractor will get to the business of restoring the home to what it was,” Williams said.
She said the committee would likely see contracts related to that work later this summer or in the fall.
The veterans who lived at the home are being housed in a section of Enterprise Health and Rehab and HMR of Alabama, the third-party that manages the state’s veterans homes, continues to oversee their care.
The home was funded roughly two-thirds by the state of Alabama and one-third from the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs.
It is named after the late Adkins, a Huntsville native and U.S. Army veteran awarded the Medal of Honor in 2014 for his service in the Vietnam War.