Oct. 28--A City Council committee on Tuesday endorsed changes to a city smoke detector requirement that allowed building owners to escape penalties if they install the detectors after being caught without them..
A City Council committee on Tuesday endorsed changes to a city smoke detector requirement that allowed building owners to escape penalties if they installed the detectors after being caught without them.
Under current city ordinance, building owners who are cited for failure to have working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors can simply install or fix them before a hearing and escape fines, which run from $300 to $500 a day, said Matthew Beaudet, first deputy commissioner of the Department of Buildings.
"The building owner can escape liability by simply putting in the smoke detector or fixing it after the fact," allowing them use a loophole to "gamble with the lives of residents," Beaudet said.
The change endorsed by the Zoning Committee would remove that after-the-fact option. It's slated for a Nov. 5 vote of the full council.
Landlords are responsible for installing smoke detectors in all buildings, both in common hallways and individual apartments. They also must replace batteries in the hallways, although tenants are responsible for replacing them in their apartments.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a group of aldermen introduced the plan a few weeks after a September blaze in a Roseland building that killed four children.
The city had cited the building owner in June for failure to install and maintain smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. After the fatal fire, the city filed a complaint in court for those same violations.
So far this year in Chicago, there have been 15 fire-related deaths. Six of those killed were children. In 12 cases, there were either no smoke detectors or ones that weren't working in the building.
Zoning Committee Chairman Daniel Solis, 25th, one of the aldermen who sponsored the measure, said public education will still play an important role in preventing fatalities, given the city's limited resources
"My concern is (that) I don't think we have the manpower to check every building that we have in the city," Solis said. Beaudet agreed that "education is a key to this" and the Fire Department has been "very aggressive" in that role.
hdardick@tribune.com
jebyrne@tribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne
Twitter @ReporterHal
.png?w=600)
