No excuse

We had a horrible tragedy just down the road over the weekend. An apartment complex on Weidler Street burned down in the middle of the night. Two people died, and several others were hurt. Many of the tenants who were lucky enough to escape lost everything. Some pets are missing.

It's not clear what started it. The media keep mentioning fireworks, but that's utter speculation at this point. At 3:00 in the morning, I think fireworks were probably over.

 But what is clear is that the wood-frame buildings did not have fire alarms or sprinklers.

The buildings were old, which is why they didn't have them, but that's all the more reason to require them. All Portlanders should be hanging our heads in shame that we let this happen. Yeah, the landlords will have to spend some money, and rents will go up. But that's better than being dead.