A fatal fire last month has prompted the Northlake City Council Finance Committee to authorize a survey of the community’s 56 apartment buildings.
The survey, to be conducted by Oppidan Inc. of Chicago at a cost of $3,800, is the first step in enacting an ordinance requiring annual inspections of apartments, said Mayor Jeffrey T. Sherwin. The current ordinance requires apartment inspections only when tenants change, and some landlords don’t notify the city when that happens, Sherwin added.
If the survey shows a need for annual inspections, as expected, an ordinance will be drafted and a public hearing will be held.
The Sept. 10 fire that led to the deaths of four people started in a basement laundry room of an apartment building at 37 S. Wolf Rd.
Doors to the laundry rooms and the individual apartments that did not have solid cores, as required under city zoning codes, were cited in a September 1996 inspection, Sherwin said.
Although the building owner had properly installed smoke detectors, according to that inspection report, the city legal staff is trying to determine if the owner should be fined for not yet installing the solid-core doors, Sherwin said.
