The Nov. 14 fire was the third at a Hendricks-owned property in recent years. Another apartment in the Marvin Gardens complex, 1010 S. Pugh St., caught fire in March 2006 after a resident said he fell asleep on his couch with a lit cigarette. Penn State student Christopher Raspanti died during a 2005 fire that might have been caused by faulty electrical wiring at 500 E. Beaver Ave. No citations were filed following the other fires, though Hendricks is currently a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Raspanti's parents.
Senior Fire and Housing Inspector Tim Knisely testified at the hearing that he inspected the destroyed Marvin Gardens apartment at about 7 a.m., about two hours after the fire was contained. He said he saw that it lacked smoke detectors in the bedrooms as required by the fire code and other rooms he investigated in the building were also missing smoke detectors.
Knisely testified that he informed Hendricks that he would be returning at 10 a.m. to conduct an emergency investigation of the eight-building Marvin Gardens complex.
Knisely said when he returned, the rooms he inspected had the required smoke detectors. However, Knisely said he heard smoke detectors being tested as he arrived, and he said receipts obtained from Lowe's showed that Hendricks had purchased more than 100 smoke detectors in the hours before the inspection.
Hendricks and other witnesses testified that the purchased smoke detectors were newer "interconnected" models that could have been used to replace old smoke detectors.
Hendricks said Knisely told him earlier in the morning that he should purchase smoke detectors so he could be in compliance with the code.
"He said I should go right down and get smoke detectors as soon as Lowe's opens," he said. "He told me five times to go do it."
Six of the violations Hendricks was found guilty of are for the apartments that Knisely personally inspected during his initial investigation.
The other seven violations are for missing carbon monoxide detectors in six buildings. Knisely said those detectors were not installed during the 10 a.m. investigation.
Horner said he believed "a lot" of the other apartments did not have the smoke detectors, but he found Hendricks not guilty of the other violations because Knisely did not personally see that those violations had occurred.
"Maybe the other ones weren't in compliance, but I don't have enough here to make that leap," he said.
Horner said Hendricks should have installed the smoke detectors earlier.
Knisely said after the hearing that he would have done the inspection earlier, but he had to give the landlord notice because of concern for the privacy of the tenants. He said if a situation like this occurs again, he will consider changing the policy.
The Marvin Gardens complex now meets all fire safety code requirements, according to the Centre County Code Administration.
