4 kids die in a firetrap condo

[Old plug]

These condos are not good things as far as safety goes. I cannot ever remember seing one with a fire escape. They are all fire Vinal siding( fire retardent or not) put on over foam sheathing set on multiplestories of wood framing. Put there by poor engineering and shoddy construction is asking for it. I remember the fire in Lick Branch Cove some years ago. Anyone should have ben able to see to that those places were not set far enough apart and a good fire would leap from one to the other. And that is what happened.

With no fire escape it is very easy for people to get trapped in the upper floors. Nearly all these things have central exits. If a fire starts down on first floor it will speard around the vinal and foam walls pretty fast thereby cutting off the only support route. In the pictures I have seen of this fire tht is exactly what happened.

[stuartsx5]

My family has stayed in that complex and you are correct about the support route. I worried about fire the entire time we were there. Millions of dollars of fire traps around the lakes

[Old plug]

here is more than Fire traps. They shut down a whole condo at Gurricane deck vecause it was coming apart. Deck and such were seperating from the building.

[TroutRinger]

They are no different in regards to fire escapes as any condo or apartment complex that size at the lake or in any city. Yes I know back in the day the old brick buildings had central staircases with iron escape stairs but that's not how they build them anymore, anywhere, lakeside or not.

You can go next door to Lands End which has a couple sets of stairs per building but the buildings are 3 or 4 times larger.

I know first hand that Compass Point has and enforces very strict rules on the residents to prevent stuff like this.

[Old plug]

Truth is it goes farther. They shut down a condo developement down at Hurricane Deck because it was falling apart.Stuff like decks etc were falling away from the building.

Safety rules mean bothing if the construction is dangerous. Around this lake that is what it is.

[Omega jig bass]

My grandparents house is very close to that complex that's falling apart they said the state of Missouri banned the person that built it from building anything in Missouri for the rest of his life

[Old plug]

THEY SHOULD. They ahould also make mandantory state building codes for those things. Camden county ls supppose to have some . Morgan county has none.

[sms_alum]

A good friend of mine owns a condo in the building next to the one that burned. Same builder and complex. I have stayed there many times, but it is on the ground floor so I never thought much about it. The condos themselve seem reasonably well built, but with one exit they are fire traps. These condos have exterior wood stairs as the exit.

Other condos I have seen have concrete stairs and that seems alot more logical, maybe give people a little more time to get out.

[MOPanfisher]

It's a sad deal all around. Most folks who buy/rent a condo never consider something like escape in event of fire or other emergency. Most counties (not all) do have building codes now, but for older structures like many around LOZ they pre-date the codes.