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Family goes without home for weeks after fire

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Four families displaced by a fire earlier this month are looking for answers. 

For almost three weeks, Nacole Brooks and her five children, including 11-month-old Madison have called a hotel in Lenexa home. Firefighters say someone intentionally set their apartment on fire at the 6300 block of Cottonwood Drive April 1.  

“They thought that within some days we would be able to go back into the house to get everything that we needed but it’s been on hold,” Brooks said. 

Initially, the Red Cross stepped in to help the four families but that assistance is running out. 

Brooks has had a chance to pick up a few of her kid's belongings.

“Everything was fine except for the one room,” Brooks said.

But the property owner, the Yarco Company, tells 41 Action News that her home is one of two that been deemed uninhabitable, the families can’t re-enter. 

Meanwhile, Stephanie Eferakeya’s apartment is salvageable but when she could move back in has been unclear.

“'Oh, you can move back in next week.' Next week comes, 'oh, you can move in the next week.' Then I get a call this morning about 10 something and that all four of us to find a place to live,” Eferakeya said.

41 Action News got a hold of a Yarco Company representative while speaking with Eferakeya. 

He told her it’s a misunderstanding and she would be able to move back this Saturday if her apartment passes a city inspection.

As for who started the fire, the Shawnee fire marshal said me that’s still under investigation.