To the editor:

The Journal-World quite correctly defended the Lawrence firefighters’ performance in the Boardwalk Apartments fire. The June 25 editorial ended by stating: “The crux of the matter is that a young man started a fire that had devastating effects. From the look of things, the onus should be on the perpetrator.”

It seems to me there are other cruces that have gotten little if any mention in the discussion. Why were there no fire escapes on this three-story structure, or a sprinkler system? Grandfathered in – in this case out – you say. I wonder how the people forced to jump from the upper stories of a building going up like a tinderbox feel about a “grandfather” who shows such callous disregard for their safety? And finally the question of codes, building materials and techniques that allowed a building to go from a lit match on a balcony to a general conflagration so quickly.

It seems there are plenty of onuses to go around.

Philip Kimball,

Lawrence