Osage Beach district recommends fire safety changes after children's deaths

Seeks public input in upcoming hearing


Firefighters extinguish a fire that took the lives of four children Aug. 4, 2015 at an Osage Beach condominium unit. The building, part of the larger Compass Pointe Condomium Complex, was not equipped with smoke detectors because it was built in the 1980s before the district adopted fire codes.
Firefighters extinguish a fire that took the lives of four children Aug. 4, 2015 at an Osage Beach condominium unit. The building, part of the larger Compass Pointe Condomium Complex, was not equipped with smoke detectors because it was built in the 1980s before the district adopted fire codes.

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. - The Osage Beach Fire Protection District will hold a public hearing this month regarding proposed changes to regulations for fire prevention.

The nine-member committee recommending the changes to the district's board of directors was appointed by Fire Chief Jeff Dorhauer last fall, following an Aug. 4, 2015, condominium fire in which four children died.

The cause of the fire was ruled as undetermined by the Missouri Fire Marshal's Office; however, the fire's origin was pinpointed as just outside the door to the fourth-floor unit where the children were sleeping, where there were both an air-conditioning unit and a coffee can used for cigarette butt disposal.

All four of the children were in one of the condo unit's bedrooms. By the time the fire was discovered, the flames were so intense neither the supervising adult in the unit nor the firefighters who arrived on scene a few minutes later were able to reach the children in time.

Despite the numerous Osage Beach firefighters and a number of supporting units from surrounding fire districts, the fire was so intense the entire four-story building was destroyed.

The building, part of the larger Compass Pointe Condomium Complex, was not equipped with smoke detectors because it was built in the 1980s before the district adopted fire codes. When fire codes were adopted several years later, older multi-family dwellings that did not have fire-suppression systems were grandfathered in, as fire district officials agreed the price tag for retrofitting older buildings with sprinkler systems was cost-prohibitive.

However, after the Compass Pointe fire, district officials were determined to look into measures to improve fire safety without creating a financial hardship for the property owners. The committee's main goal was to look at changes to current fire district safety standards that would meet the following criteria: what feasibly can be accomplished, what legally can be enforced and consideration of the economic impact to recommendations.

After five months, the committee is ready to present its findings to the public at a hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 29 in the School of the Osage High School auditorium on Missouri 42 in Osage Beach.

Fire safety committee recommendations

The following is a list of changes to current regulations and standards a nine-member fire safety committee will make to the Osage Beach Fire Protection District board of directors and present to the general public on Feb. 29.

The recommended changes are divided into two categories, those to be implemented into the district's fire code and those to be implemented by property owner and/or homeowner associations of multi-family dwellings.

The committee code changes that will be recommended to the fire district board are:

• Emergency lighting and signs on multi-family dwelling complexes.

• Provide public education (on fire safety) for property managers and homeowners associations.

• Require fire alarms as follows: minimum of one fire alarm per unit; fire alarms that alert entire building; and install heat detectors at exterior exits.

• Do not allow grills on decks.

• Enforce current fire code that requires a 10-foot distance from decks and other flammable materials and only allows their use on non-combustible surfaces.

• Install non-combustible ashtrays for disposal of cigarette butts in the exterior area of each building.

• Enforce current codes prohibiting use of fueled equipment in and under buildings.

• Require a manual alarm system be installed in buildings with more than three stories and/or 16 individual dwelling units.

Recommendations the committee will suggest the fire district require of homeowner and/or property owner associations are as follows:

• Post an evacuation plan in each unit of a multi-family dwelling.

• Provide emergency escape guide, mounted to exit doors on all R-2 rental units.

• Restrict smoking to certain areas - and educate individual unit dwellers on the dangers of negligent disposal of cigarettes and the fact that a person can be charged with a crime for improperly disposing of a cigarette.

• Install fire extinguishers near the egress stairwell of each floor of multi-family buildings.

• Require residents of individual units to have a fire extinguisher on hand.

• Conduct fire drills.

• Have sprinkler and alarm systems serviced by a qualified contractor.

• Enforcement requirement that carbon monoxide detectors be installed if fuel fired appliances are used in individual units.

• Inspection of fired-rated assemblies.

• Enforce concealed space storage restriction.

The committee will also make two recommendations that are to be considered "suggestions only."

• Install sprinkler systems on all stairwells of multi-family dwellings.

• Enforce fire codes that are specifically designed for exterior stairways.