Care Homes Fail to Heed Call for Fire Inspections : Safety: Officials sought the visits after the death of a resident, 73. Most state-licensed facilities in the county have not replied.

About 85% of the state-licensed nursing homes and day-care facilities regulated by the county Building and Safety Department have ignored requests to allow county inspectors to check for fire-code violations.

Inspectors from the county department decided in March to inspect all the care facilities in their jurisdiction after a 73-year-old man was killed in a nursing home fire where a smoke detector was improperly installed.

But nearly three months after county officials requested appointments for the inspections, the operators of 61 of the 70 care facilities in Camarillo and in unincorporated areas of the county have failed to reply.

William Windroth, director of the department, said that if the operators of the homes continue to ignore his requests for inspections he will consider getting search warrants to enter the facilities.

“They probably think, ‘I am licensed by the state and the county has no right to come in here,’ ” he said.

County inspectors have the authority to inspect any business in the unincorporated areas and in Camarillo, which has contracted with the county for services provided by the Building and Safety Department, Windroth said.

He said, however, that he wants the inspections to be completed with the cooperation of the facility operators.

Although the facilities are inspected annually by the county fire marshal, Windroth said those inspections focus on such violations as accumulated trash, improperly stored combustibles, such as gasoline, and blocked exits.

His inspections will concentrate on whether smoke detectors and fire extinguishers are properly installed and whether the buildings meet all safety codes, he said.

“Yes, I’m worried,” he said. “If I wasn’t worried I wouldn’t have embarked on this campaign.”

The inspections of the nine care facilities turned up only minor violations, county officials said. For example, one home failed to secure a water heater to a wall and another facility needed to install dry-wall cover on a wall that separates a garage from a house.

Windroth said he will send a second letter to each facility this month and a third letter will follow before he considers getting search warrants.

The inspections were prompted by the death in November of Victor Rose, who lived in a converted garage in the Shangri-La Guest Home in Meiners Oaks. Rose accidentally set fire to his room while smoking in bed.

Shangri-La, which had been cited several times last year for safety violations, did not have permits to convert the garage into a bedroom, and a smoke detector system in the room was not properly installed, building and safety officials said.

“When we started, it was our mission at that point that we were not going to have any more people fricasseed out there,” Windroth said.

The operators of several nursing homes said, however, that Rose’s death was an isolated incident and should not be used as a reason for additional inspections.

“We already have a lot of people really scrutinizing us,” said Cita Trinidad, who owns and operates two residential care homes for the elderly in Camarillo. “One bad incident doesn’t mean that all of the operators are doing the same thing.”

Trinidad said she received a letter from the county Building and Safety Department but ignored it because her facilities were inspected this year by the county fire marshal.

“Why don’t they just coordinate between the fire marshal and building and safety, and just have one inspection?” she asked.

In contrast, Debbie Conner, the administrator of a home for the elderly in Oak View, said she called fire officials after the Shangri-La fire and requested an inspection to ease her mind about fire safety.

The inspection revealed that her facility needed an additional fire escape at the rear of the building, she said.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Conner said of the county inspections.

She said, however, that she has not received a letter from the Building and Safety Department requesting an appointment for the inspection.

Conner added that she has been trying to contact county inspectors to get a permit for a new wing for non-ambulatory clients.

“It takes an act of God to get building and safety out here,” she said.

Assistant Fire Marshal Dan Spykerman said his staff inspects day-care and residential-care homes as part of the annual state-licensing renewal process. The cost for the inspections ranges from $75 to $225, depending on the size of the facility, he said.

But Spykerman said he supports the efforts of the county Building and Safety Department.

“My personal feeling is the more eyes you have looking the safer the building is,” he said.

In addition to the fire marshal, residential care facilities for the elderly are also routinely visited by representatives of the Ventura County Long Term Care Ombudsman Program.

The program handles complaints raised by residents in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and residential facilities in private homes. It then refers all problems to the Community Care Licensing Division of the state Social Services Department.

Shirley Radding, program director for the ombudsman program, said her staff makes general inspections of residential care homes but does not look specifically for fire code violations.

“If we saw something obvious we would notify someone,” she said. “After all, our people are not fire safety inspectors.”