By HANNAH CLARKIN

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WEST WARWICK — A call to the West Warwick Fire Department reporting an odor of gas in an eight-unit apartment building at 82 Pond St. on Thursday led to condemnation of the building and the tenants spending the night elsewhere, according to Town Manager James Thomas.

The building, occupied by seven families and a total of 14 people, had a laundry list of violations discovered by Building Official Frank Venezia, said Thomas.

“Frank called me up and said ‘Jim we have to condemn this building; there’s fire code violations, no heat in the building,’” Thomas said. “So I went over there, met with the residents and tried to work it out the best I could. It was really a sad situation.”

Condemnation of a building is a serious matter, Thomas said. The property is owned by Nuflo LLC, located on 33 Hamlin Ave. in Warwick, according to the building department. A man named Carmine Gallucci works with the residents, they said.

The owner has been accused of negligence, Thomas said. “I mean, the fire alarms hadn’t been inspected since 2005.”

Nuflo was given two citations with a list of code violations, Thomas said. Company representatives will be appearing in municipal court to answer the code violations. “In the short-term, the owner was supposed to get his alarm company over there to fix the fire alarm and connect the smoke detectors and address the heating issue.”

When the families were unable to spend the night at their home West Warwick, the West Warwick Human Services Department came to their aid and provided them with dinner and a night at Extended Stay, said CEO/President Manny Murray, the town’s human services director.

Emergency Management Director Tom Senerchia brought the families back to the senior center for coffee and a hot dinner, Murray said.

“We brought them to the senior center, made them macaroni and salad for dinner, because they didn’t have a way to cook and put them up at Extended Stay for one night,” Murray said.

As of Friday afternoon, Murray said, the building had passed fire code, but there was a possibility that two families would need to stay another night at the hotel because their heat still wasn’t working.

Human services has funds to provide housing in these circumstances, Murray said, but, unless the event is because of some act of God or something beyond the landlord’s control, he will be charged for negligence.

“Normally, if it is the fault of the landlord, the town and the building inspector put a lien on the property until it is paid off. In this case the fee will be fairly minimal —1 to 3 nights lodging,” Murray said.

But the inconvenience is to the renter, Murray said. “They not only are displaced from their home — and have no way of cooking dinner, no way of cooking breakfast — when there’s children involved, they’re far away from school and have to provide transportation.”

He was glad human services was able to help, Murray said. “That’s what we do — we’re here for the community. It can be at 2 in the afternoon or 2 in the morning. We want people to know that we will be there to help if we can.”

Yesterday evening, the West Warwick Fire Department was back at 82 Pond St.

The department responded for a water emergency that appeared to stem from a toilet overflowing on the third floor and water dripping into a fixture in the apartment on the second floor, said Lt. Paul McAllister of the West Warwick Fire Department.

Electrical service to the apartment was shut off, according to the fire department.

The people in the apartment affected by the water were put up in a hotel for the night, McAllister said. He believes these people were also removed from their apartment on Thursday night, he said.