Apartment Fires: Preventable Tragedies
Apartment fires are, sadly, a regular occurrence. Just this week a Savannah Apartment Fire killed a five year old child and sent 4 others to the hospital. Earlier this month, five refugee children in Greensboro, NC were killed in an apartment fire. Because the landlord and/or apartment owner did not have basic fire safety equipment in these apartments, these apartment fires were tragedies.
Smoke alarms and sprinklers are the easiest, most cost effective means by which to prevent death or serious injury in an apartment fire. Apartment fire lawyers, who routinely represent those burned in multi-family housing fires, know and understand the importance of state and local fire codes when analyzing the cause of any apartment fire. Under NFPA 501, and landlord and owner has a duty to maintain the means in ingress and egress; under NFPA 101, a landlord must ensure sleeping rooms have operable windows. NFPA 501 also requires “continuously powered” smoke alarms (i.e. not just battery powered smoke alarms). Often, this means smoke alarms which are “hard wired” with a continuous power source.
The Flynn law firm regularly files apartment/rental house lawsuits against landlords and building owners. Nearly every case involves sub-standard housing conditions, with code violations, a failure to install smoke detectors, and a failure to install or maintain working fire exists.
