Local officials are reminding apartment residents and landlords to follow state guidelines after a grill fire destroyed a number of condos near Lake Monroe last weekend.
According to state law, residents of apartments and condos cannot have grills unless they also have a sprinkler system. Residents can be fined if they are in violation of the law.
“You must have a sprinkler head outside on the deck itself,” Bloomington Fire Chief Roger Kerr said. “You can’t have a grill on the deck.”
Older complexes may not have the equipment necessary to properly, so residents generally forgo owning a grill altogether.
“There are no grills on decks essentially anywhere,” Kerr said.
But Kerr also said the law can be difficult to enforce. Since inspectors must track a large number of complexes, he said property managers should do a better job enforcing the code on their own.
