Thursday, November 29, 2007

Smoke Detectors save lives...

It's a tragic situation when anyone dies in a fire, it's even more tragic when it's a child and pretty horrendous for our community when three children die huddled together in a hall. What makes this story even worse is their mother died as well and it appears there was no smoke detectors in the home from what has been reported thus far.

The home was a rental property, which means according to 1301.11. -Ord. 350-03. Passed 4-29-03 - Smoke detector requirements for dwelling units, it was the responsibility of the landlord to make sure:
e) After the effective date of this section, at every change of occupancy of every dwelling unit occasioned by or incidental to a sale, rental, lease or sublease of such unit, it shall be the duty of the grantor thereof (that is, the seller, landlord, lessor or sublessor, as the case may be) to certify, before occupancy, to the new occupant that all smoke detectors as required by this section, or other applicable laws, are installed and in proper working condition. Failure to comply with this subsection shall be punishable as set forth herein, provided however, that this subsection shall not be construed to vitiate or render void any contract, lease or sublease subject thereto.


As a renter, if your landlord doesn't supply you with one, there are many places to buy a smoke detector, some are pretty darn inexpensive and there are other places, like your nearest fire station that have them for free for those who can't afford to buy one. In 2007 we should at least be to the point where every single home has at least one fire detector...

It's too early to tell if having smoke detectors would have saved any lives in this fire, it's easy to speculate that it would have and while I realize it won't bring back the lives of those three children and their mother, I do hope that the landlord is charged if it is confirmed no smoke detector's were present in the home. I also hope all of us make it a point to make sure that everyone we know does have a smoke detector...People will still die under tragic circumstances, there is no way to prevent them all, but we can at least take basic steps to give them more warning...

(crossposted from Glass City Jungle)

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