When will officials be held accountable?

Posted

To the Editor:

Let me understand this. Now, the fire inspectors and officials want to investigate the California Warehouse building? Now, we are going to find out what might have caused a fire? What happened to inspecting the building before it is occupied? What happened to inspecting it while it is occupied? What ever happened to fire officials who did their job properly, before a fire?

There are hundreds of questions I could ask, but I already know the answer. Nobody really cares. Oh, the relatives of the victims do. The mother of the youngest victim, the 17-year-old boy, does.

But the owner of the building didn’t. The “landlord” didn’t. The fire officials who knew that the warehouse was completely illegal didn’t. They were put “on the back burner.” That is until the warehouse became a burner.

One of the reports stated that the “inspectors” could not gain access when they wanted to investigate. Wait, did I hear that right? A fire marshal could not get into a building? Does that city have a solicitor? Does he know how to apply for a warrant? Do the local police have a battering ram?  

Until city and state officials decide that events like the Station Nightclub fire can happen to them, we will all be watching this occur again and again. Until landlords understand that they are responsible for the safety of every tenant and every visitor to their property, these avoidable deaths will continue.

Oh, one last question. When are we going to start making fire marshals and other elected and appointed public safety officials pay for their incompetence and malfeasance?

David Kane

Johnston

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