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Wayne White
Managing Editor
Osage County commissioners learned Monday that an extra stairway
constructed at the courthouse is an inevitable solution to fire
safety violations cited by the state fire marshal.
Commissioners heard from Dan Rowe, of Treanor Architects, that he
would work on the county’s behalf to draft letters to the
fire marshal explaining the proposed solution and laying out a timeline
for the problems to be solved.
Commissioners met with Rowe to discuss a previous proposal from
Treanor to conduct a fire code review and develop a historic preservation
plan. Although commissioners had considered the company’s
month-old proposal, the price tag for services, approximately $35,000,
halted action.
Rowe alleviated some concern over the cost by offering to respond
to the fire marshal at no cost to the county. He also told commissioners
that while the preservation plan would be a useful tool, it was
not necessary to answer the fire marshal’s concerns.
“[The preservation plan] obviously is an optional part; it
will help with every remodeling from here on out,” Rowe said.
“It will tell you areas you can easily remodel and other areas
that you should very lightly and delicately remodel … not
necessary for today’s work that needs done on the fire marshal’s
concerns.”
He said a preservation plan could possibly be funded by a Heritage
Trust Fund grant in the future.
Treanor’s first proposal was in response to fire safety violations
cited by a Kansas State Fire Marshal inspector in July. Violations
cited pertained to emergency exits, emergency lighting and signage,
openings between floors, lack of emergency plans, elevator smoke
alarm testing, and no fire alarm system. Commissioners requested
the fire safety inspection after concerns were raised about the
safety of new windows to be installed at the courthouse. Since the
inspection, the county has received a letter from the fire marshal’s
office that set the occupancy of the second and third floors of
the courthouse at no more than 49 persons until at least two separate
exits can be provided on each floor.
Rowe said the other portion of his company’s proposal, to
develop a code review, would also not be a useful solution to the
fire marshal’s concerns.
“I don’t think drawing up a code plan and submitting
it will do you any good,” Rowe said. “That code plan
will simply indicate two exits are required and only one is provided.”
Rowe said the courthouse’s lack of a second exit on the upper
floors is not unusual in Kansas.
“If they do what they have done to this courthouse, by basically
and effectively shutting you down for an occupancy of over 49 combination
of second and third floors, they would have to do it for about a
fourth of the county courthouses in the state of Kansas,”
he said.
He advised the commission to respond to the fire marshal with a
plan to remedy the situation.
“The reality of the situation is having two exits is the right
thing to do,” he said.
“What my suggestion is, don’t spend any money right
now, instead have me, I won’t charge you, write a letter to
the fire marshal that indicates that we’re working with you
to create a solution and a schedule when that will occur,”
Rowe said. “In my opinion, you could tell them within the
next two years you hope to have that remedied.”
When questioned by commissioners, Rowe said an estimate of the cost
to add a stairway would be $250,000 to $500,000.
He cautioned that he did not know the magnitude of such a project
and his estimates may not be accurate. He indicated an outside stairway
would cost more than an indoor stairway, due in part because historic
tax credits could be utilized for an indoor stairway.
County counselor Delton Gilliland noted that an indoor stairway
“will require loss of significant office space.”
Whether indoors or out, Rowe said, “Reality of it, in event
of fire, you should have a second stair.
“If you show a good faith effort and put together a concept
and a plan to proceed toward that solution in the next three years,
you’ll probably be all right.”
Commissioners discussed the likelihood that a fire could occur in
the building, considering that it is built of concrete and contains
few combustible materials, coming to the conclusion that a fire
would likely have to be deliberately set.
Commissioner Carl Meyer questioned whether two staircases would
be safer if a fire was deliberately set. “Terrorists, they’re
not dumb. If you have an outside staircase, they wouldn’t
be so dumb they wouldn’t plant a fire there and out here,
too. To plan for everything is kind of ridiculous,” he said.
Rowe said the most likely fire problem would be “someone on
first floor tossing a cigarette in a trash can and the smoke from
that billowing and rising up through that main stair and making
it problematic to exit through that stairway.”
Commissioner Larry Woodson questioned whether a fire suppressant
system in the building would lessen the safety issues.
“The situation is not fire suppression, it’s an exiting
situation in an event,” Rowe said. “There’s only
one remedy, that’s putting in a second exit.”
Woodson said the courthouse could not operate under the fire marshal’s
mandate of no more than 49 people on the upper two floors.
Rowe said the fire marshal was only requiring notification if the
courthouse exceeded the set number of occupants. “They’re
allowing you to operate. What they want is notice you’re going
to exceed 49,” he said.
Meyer asked, if other counties are facing the same problems, why
Osage County is being singled out.
Rowe noted that the fire marshal was invited to the courthouse.
“A situation occurred and we felt we needed to have an answer
to protect the public and that’s why went to the fire marshal,”
Meyer said. “We did this innocently and tried to get information,
and then we created a situation.”
Commissioner William Prescott said, “If their main concern
is safety of people in public buildings, it should be all public
buildings, not just ones they’re invited to.”
Rowe said that even though the fire marshal was invited to look
at the storm window concerns, “his duty was to say, ‘here’s
the problems and issues I see.’”
Questioned by Woodson, Rowe said the interior storm windows were
as safe as the original windows in the courthouse.
Rowe recommended commissioners “find a concept of time as
to when you will be able to afford a project that would entail adding
a second stair.” He said taxpayers should be notified a second
exit is necessary.
Commissioners agreed with Rowe’s proposal to present letters
to the fire marshal for their review at next Monday’s meeting.
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