Officials working on code enforcement in wake of Saturday fires

Fire crews and investigators work Saturday at the scene of an early morning fire that gutted an apartment complex at the corner of Dunklin and Mulberry streets in Jefferson City.
Fire crews and investigators work Saturday at the scene of an early morning fire that gutted an apartment complex at the corner of Dunklin and Mulberry streets in Jefferson City.

Saturday's massive apartment building fire on Mulberry Street is causing Jefferson City officials to step up efforts to correct problems in older structures.

Interim City Administrator and City Attorney Nathan Nickolaus said the city has been called on code enforcement violations at these apartments frequently.

"We had been planning a major sweep to take place after Thanksgiving, but we're going to bump that up to next week," he said. "There appears to be a lot of problems and that is not tolerable. They either correct them or they're shut down."

According to information from Cole County's Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the owners of the apartments are listed as Glen and Nancy Rohrbach of California, Mo.

Nickolaus said the properties were in the process of being sold and the new owners had actually been operating the apartments for the past 30 days, but the title hadn't passed yet. The deal was supposed to close in February.

Also online: earlier coverage of Saturday's fires

Cause undetermined for fire that destroyed JC apartment building

Arrests made after apartment house fire