By AP/KWMU
Jefferson City, MO – Governor Matt Blunt Wednesday ordered a review of state safety rules for residential care facilities, days after a deadly fire at one such facility in southwest Missouri. Ten people died at the Anderson Guest House fire.
The order gives the state health and mental health departments a month to recommend improvements, including whether Missouri should mandate sprinkler systems be installed at the facilities.
New facilities must have sprinklers, but there are exemptions for those more than six years old.
The cause of the fire might have been faulty attic wiring. The Anderson home was exempt from sprinkler requirements, as are 61% of Missouri's 626 residential care facilities, according to the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
Investigators Wednesday ruled out arson and a gas furnace in the fire and said the cause may never be known because the building was largely destroyed. But they said electrical wiring was the only factor in the attic that could have sparked the blaze.
"Fire damage at the scene indicated that the fire had originated in the attic space of the building and had burned undetected for an undetermined amount of time before breaking through into the living space of the home," Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jason Clark said.
All 10 victims died of smoke inhalation, Clark said. There were 33 residents and two staff in the home. Of the two dozen injured, 18 were still hospitalized Wednesday, Clark said.
It was one of Missouri's deadliest fires and prompted new national calls for sprinkler systems in all assisted living centers.
The Missouri fire also could prompt other states to re-examine their fire safety regulations for residential boarding and care facilities, said Robert Solomon, assistant vice president for building and life safety codes at the suburban Boston-based National Fire Protection Association.
State Fire Marshal Randy Cole said the investigation includes whether there was any negligence by the owners. He said investigators found evidence of improperly spliced wiring in the attic that would have violated nationally-accepted building codes.
"If there is any potential possibility that we could identify an issue that could result in criminal charges, obviously we're going to pursue that," Cole said.
But he said his office had no enforcement powers. He said it might be an issue for the health and senior services department, which regulates such facilities.
Joplin-based River of Life Ministries, which ran the home and three others like it in southwest Missouri, declined to comment Wednesday on the findings or negligence investigation. The preliminary results of the investigation came the same day as the first local funeral for a victim, Patricia Henson, a 54-year-old mentally handicapped woman from an Ozarks pioneer family whose relatives said she loved jokes, soda pop, hugs and animals.
"You'd always see her sitting in a chair with two dogs next to her on either side," said Henson's brother Lawrence Henson, 64.