Lawsuits Filed In Two House Fires

Wrongful death lawsuits have been filed by relatives of seven people killed in two deadly fires in western Kansas rental homes.

The Garden City Telegram reports that the lawsuits filed earlier this year focus on landlord’s responsibilities to maintain working smoke detectors.

A mother and her two young daughters died in a Jan. 8 fire in Garden City. Officials determined there was no working smoke detector.

Then a March 10 blaze in Scott City killed a woman and three young children.

The Smoke Detector Act was passed in 1998. It requires all property owners to equip homes with smoke detectors on each floor.

The Garden City home’s owner says he was ignorant of the law before the fire and since has installed smoke detectors in his 300 rental properties.