The Steamboat Pilot & Today: Apartment not up to code

Contribute

Steamboat Springs — The apartment where longtime Steamboat Springs resident David Engle died in a kitchen fire is not a legal residence and had no smoke detectors, fire investigators and city officials have confirmed. A city official also said there hasn’t been a widespread crackdown on illegal units because they often provide needed affordable housing.

Fire Marshal Jay Muhme, who finished the inspection at 705 Pine St. on Wednesday, said Engle apparently fell asleep while cooking french fries, and a grease fire from the gas cooking range filled the apartment with smoke. The investigation also showed there were no smoke detectors anywhere in the small, converted garage apartment.

“It was a hot grease fire that burned pretty fast and consumed all the oxygen before it could burn very far,” Muhme said. The adjoining unit, 243 Seventh St., had only minor smoke damage.

It is unclear if the apartment was required to have smoke detectors because there is no registered history of its conversion from a garage or any other construction permits on file.

Routt County Coroner Rob Ryg said autopsy results revealed Engle died from smoke inhalation. A toxicology report was still pending.

Tom Leeson, city community development and planning director, said the structure appears to be illegal because it did not go through a review process when new building codes were implemented in 2001.

“We did not find any records of it having been registered as a secondary unit,” he said.

Leeson said the city would have a record if the apartment had gone through the review process.

“They would have been required to have building code upgrades and get an address for each one of the units,” he said.

Only the adjoining unit on Seventh Street is a registered city address.

If the apartment had gone through the process, it also would have been required to meet fire safety codes, including having a working smoke detector.

David Schamanski, who says he lived in the apartment for about a year in 1990 to 1991, said the residence had only one way in and out.

“It was really small,” he said, describing the apartment as about 10 feet wide and 25 feet long. “There was nothing safe about it. Even when I lived there, I was like, ‘How is this place up to code?’”

Herald Stout owned the 243 Seventh St. property from 1994 to 2004 and said he talked to the city about the property several times but never registered the second apartment because he thought the regulations didn’t apply.

Stout said the address at 705 Pine St. was an apartment when he purchased it, and because he made no changes he thought he didn’t need to update the records.

Leeson said that although former owners may not have brought the building into compliance when codes were implemented, responsibility now falls on the current landlord.

“The owner of the land is responsible. Even though the code changed when they were not the owners, the current owners continued the use and they are responsible,” Leeson said.

Reached by phone Thursday, current owner Jeff Gerber, who purchased the property in late 2007 with his wife, Trigg Gerber, declined to comment about the apartment or its legal status.

“At this time our concern is for Dave’s family and friends and we wish them the best in this extremely difficult time,” Gerber said. “Dave is going to be greatly missed.”

City Council President Loui Antonucci said he recalled the council discussing secondary units in the 1990s, but the current council has not addressed the issue.

“I do not recall in all my years on City Council having people complain about” illegal secondary units, he said. “That is one of the ways the community has coped with the lack of affordable housing.”

Antonucci said the council likely would be unaware of the issue unless someone brought it up or complained.

“I don’t know if we have somebody out there driving around looking for things that are illegal and stopping them,” he said. “Part of (the reason) is that regulation costs money.”

He also said the city hasn’t been motivated about looking for illegal units, but life safety issues still are important.

“Sometimes in a community like this when you do have housing issues, I think that sometimes there’s a tendency to allow things to occur, or at least we turn the other cheek sometimes in not knowing about it,” Antonucci said.

“That being said, if something is completely unsafe, we usually don’t let it go on without having some provision to make the life safety issue go away.”

Antonucci said he wasn’t sure whether Engle’s death would prompt the council to revisit the issue.

— To reach Zach Fridell, call 871-4028

or e-mail zfridell@steamboatpilot.com

Try the Steamboat Pilot & Today for 45 days FREE
Click here for details or call 970-871-4232

Community comments

Note: The Steamboat Pilot & Today doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy.

yampagov (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 7:28 a.m.
› Suggest removal

I wonder if they will crack down on Kevin Bennett's illegal apartment; after all he was President of City Council at one time.

waiting4snow (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 7:53 a.m.
› Suggest removal

We'll miss you Dave.

nxoby36 (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 8:55 a.m.
› Suggest removal

Just WHAT is the job the driver of that $25,000 SUV that has ” code enforcement ” written in bold lettering on the doors ?

katrinkakelly (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 9:29 a.m.

(This comment was removed by the site staff because it violated our terms of use.)

thecondoguy1 (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 11:15 a.m.
› Suggest removal

My heart aches for the loss of this young man, a smoke detector costs $4.98 at Walmart, please check your apartment and make sure you have one or two in good working order.
Buy a microwave, this style of cooking is dangerous.
Don't smoke in your unit.
If you own illegal units get them up to standards, validate them with the proper authorities, and call your attorney.
Heads are going to roll over this, if I were the attorneys for this mans family, I would want to supoena Realtor records, sales literature, marketing material, MLS documents, closing documents, building dept. records, leases etc., there are many people responsible for this sad event.

colobob (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 11:49 a.m.
› Suggest removal

What now? Do they start enforcing the code? And if they do what do they suppose is going to happen to many of the businesses in town? Where will all these people go? How many of those working here will have to live and work elsewhere in order to make a living, put a roof over their heads and have food on the table? Talk about being between a rock and a hard place. Now we will see what it all comes down to, money or peoples health and saftey. So very sad that it had to take the loss of a life to bring the affordable housing issue to the fore front. This can not be allowed to happen again! Affordable housing needs to be a priority. Ignoring the present housing shortage is no longer an acceptable solution! Of course we could always do nothing. Isn't that whats been done up to now?

zirkel (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 12:26 p.m.
› Suggest removal

Land use code enforcement is done primarily on a complaint-driven basis.

Typically, one disgruntled neighbor complains to the City about the unruly snowboarders (sorry for the generalization) constantly partying next door. Then the City investigates based on the formal complaint. This is the case with illegal dwelling units too.

City Council rarely supports ACTIVE code enforcement by staff — they may say they do but, once those affected parties complain loud enough, the enforcement issue often gets dropped.

portagetheyampa (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 1:26 p.m.
› Suggest removal

Affordable housing is no excuse for substandard, unsafe housing in this community. So, do we let people live in boxes, in garages and under bridges in the same of “affordable housing.”

The City Council deffinitely needs to seriously revisit the issue of illegal residences and siginificantly step up code enforcement on every dwelling occuped by people to assure codes are being met.

IF the codes aren't being enforced why do we even have them????

coolerguy (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 5:19 p.m.
› Suggest removal

duh

coolerguy (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 5:44 p.m.
› Suggest removal

the comment of duh is from what i do not remember as my password. Please forgive this.

am interested, would the code dudes find anything to protest in the inspection of the iron horse? Wonder if they are interested in inspecting this. Do they cook there?

I hqve been coming to the great area of Steamboat since 1983 to ski, but if the living wage is greater than the amount paid then the area needs to look more. Making someone live in a condition that is outside the conditions of the local code enforcement is not correct., close the place and move on. Let the marketplace dictate what is to the price. If the price of my coming in one or two times a year is to force someone to live in a substandard place is the price, raise the price and if I am willing to pay it, go on with it—if not—that is progress.

Final item, I am willing to pay more to let those that make my trip fun to live. I find it offensive to pay to as an example the Iron Horse City deal to supplement those that will pay decent wages to those that make my trips/fun possible. If the Shearton cannot pay a decent wage to those that make my one or two trips possible, something else needs to be done.

heartshapedrecords (anonymous)
June 20, 2008 at 7:45 p.m.
› Suggest removal

sweet david - i have felt your kindness in my heart all day. kristi

below_me (anonymous)
June 21, 2008 at 7:54 a.m.
› Suggest removal

“A city official also said there hasn’t been a widespread crackdown on illegal units because they often provide needed affordable housing.”

You either enforce the laws rules and regulations equally or the system becomes corrupt. Me thinks its already there.

hubiem (anonymous)
June 21, 2008 at 9:03 p.m.
› Suggest removal

most of these places can probably be brought up to code. if this apartment had an egress window in the bedroom and a smoke detector, it probably still could have been used as an affordable rental unit. a crackdown on illegal units doesn't mean that they are going to shut them all down and kick the residents out. it means the units need to be brought up to code for safety purposes and registered with the city as a rental.