Proving Fault?

By Mr Monte

My apartment was recently flooded due to a burst Fire spinkler pipe. There were several other buildings in my complex with the same problem with a total of 6 units flooded from seperate pipes bursting on the same day.  The landlord to me I could not stay in my apartment and I was on my own to find housing in the mean time. While I was trying to understand how this was going to happen the landlord claimed that she was just notified by maintenance that they have a picture of my apartment and the furnace was switched to the off position (not set at a low temp) and the temp in the apartment was 55 degrees. They tell me this is now my fault and are billing me for the full months rent which I have so far only lived in the apartment one day this month. They also will not terminated my lease as it has been 11 days since the incident and the repairs are expected to take 5-6 more days. How do I dispute the blame they have placed on me? The day this happened was the coldest day of the year with lows of -20 and a day time high of -13 degrees. I have 2 dogs that live with me and my heat usage is typically high as I keep the heat on ALL the time for the pet and would NEVER risk their safety. As well as the fact that water does not freeze at 55 degrees!!! How do I go about resolving this and having the landlord complky with what I know is right? 

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