Rebecca Gondos and her husband, Peter, were the first tenants to return to 650 Parliament St. Monday morning, roughly a year and a half after a six-alarm fire displaced hundreds of residents of the St. James Town highrise.

They picked up the key from the emergency response office at 7 a.m. and said they were “anxious” to return to their unit on the 22nd floor.

“It’s been a long 19 months,” said Rebecca, standing in her apartment and directing movers to place things in the living room and bedrooms.

Wellesley Parliament Square management cleared all the safety inspections for the building to be reoccupied after about 1,500 residents of the St. James Town highrise building were forced out of their homes when the building caught fire on Aug. 21, 2018.

The six-alarm fire, which did not cause any serious injuries, was later determined to have been caused by a failure in the building’s electrical system.

Management announced earlier this year a reoccupancy schedule that started this week, with those whose units are on the penthouse and 22nd floor. According to the schedule, reoccupancy will continue until mid-May.

“I have mixed emotions right now,” Rebecca said. “I’m happy we are back in our home, but so much has changed it’s overwhelming.”

Her whole apartment has been repainted white — and the smell of paint is still fresh in the unit located on the western side of the building, overlooking the centre of St. James Town. Before the fire, the couple — who have lived here for 16 years — had their walls painted gold and burgundy. They’ll have to do some of their own painting before mounting their art.

The unit also features a new heating system, and some power plugs have been changed, which will dictate the new arrangement in the room, she said.

She and her husband had moved their belongings in a private storage space through their insurance, as they didn’t want to leave their valuable contents in the building’s basement where “there could be bugs and mice,” she said.

In the lobby, repair activities were still underway as workers could be seen fixing walls and painting at various corners.

The biggest surprise for Peter was when he pressed the button for the elevator, which still smells of fresh paint and is wrapped in paper.

“Wow, the elevator is closing fast. That’s a surprise. It used to take forever,” he said, half-jokingly.

Danny Roth, spokesperson for Wellesley Parliament Square, said eight residents will be booked to move in each day.

For three hours, the movers can use an exclusive elevator for taking their belongings up to their units. After that time, they can continue to use one of the four unbooked elevators.

“There’s definitely going to be some issues but we’ve prepared to the best of our abilities,” he said. “If we had given everybody a full day to move in, it would have taken a year for all the residents to get back home.”

Roth noted there’s still final touches happening, especially on the lower floors and in the lobby. But nothing is hazardous now, he said, as the building management passed all required safety tests before allowing people to start moving in.

“We weren’t going to delay reoccupancy for the pursuit of perfection,” he said.

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In a statement, area councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam said Toronto Building and Toronto Fire Services have assured her the building has been thoroughly inspected and is safe.

“My office will continue to monitor the situation closely to ensure that tenants get home safely and the move-in process goes smoothly,” she said.

At the beginning of the displacement, both management and the city struggled to find temporary housing for residents. Many stayed for weeks in local community centres, while others were housed in hotels. Eventually people found accommodation at various residential buildings, some run by the same property management.

Restoration work has mainly focused on rebuilding the electrical system as well as plumbing, according to management. Many units did not sustain much damage so they were only repainted, while other apartments have had kitchens and bathrooms replaced.

Earlier this year, management estimated the total cost of repair to be between $60 million and $70 million.

During the displacement period, management kept an open policy for any residents who wanted to break their leases and move on. Only residents of about 100 units took up the offer, according to management.

Those returning will continue to pay rent according to their rates at the time of the fire.

A $40-million class-action lawsuit on behalf of all residents is still underway against the building’s landlord and management, who are accused of negligence.

On Monday, a few minutes past 11 a.m., Cynthia Hamlin was starting to feel impatient. As a founding member of the 650 Parliament Residents Association, she had come to help welcome returning residents and to ensure everything was in order. But she had yet to hear from one particular resident, a senior who was scheduled to move in between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

“It’s a complicated process,” she said after calling the tenant and finding out movers were still loading her things into a truck.

“We’re talking about people’s entire lives here. Nobody loves to keep moving.”

Hamlin and her mother are also residents of 650 Parliament, and have moved from location to location since the fire. They’re scheduled to move back in by early May, among the last cohort.

She said building owners across the city have to learn to work with residents to ensure everybody’s safety going forward. Buildings are like an old car that needs regular maintenance to keep running, she said.

“For owners it’s an asset, but for us it’s our home,” she said, noting the experience of 650 Parliament should serve as a wake-up call to keep buildings’ systems well maintained at all times.