Suit Filed In Garden City Fire Deaths

A Dodge City attorney has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a pair of Garden City landlords and their property management company in connection with a house fire in Garden City that killed a woman and her two children.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Finney County District Court on behalf of Mike Savoy, husband of Nichole Savoy, 26, and father of 6-year-old Bryn Abigail Savoy and 1-year-old Madelyn Rae Savoy, who were killed in the Jan. 8, 2012, house fire at a rental home at 4220 Nancy Ave., No. 1108. An investigation determined the three died of smoke inhalation.

The lawsuit, which names Steve and Ann Burgess, Garden City, who owned the home, and their property management company Garden Spot Rental Enterprises, LLC, as defendants, claims that the Burgesses failed to provide a safe rental house by not providing a smoke detector in the home, as required by law.

Mike Savoy was unavailable for comment, but his attorney, Dave Rebein of Dodge City, said that one of the things they are hoping to accomplish through the lawsuit is to shed more light on the current Kansas statute, K.S.A. 31-162 and 31-163, which states in part that, “failure to place or maintain a smoke detector as provided by the smoke detector act shall be a nonclass nonperson misdemeanor. Any fine imposed for a violation of this section shall not exceed $25.”