FAST FACTS:
april.thompson@wreg.com
(Memphis 6/10/2009) The inside of the home at 4007 Plymouth Road is gutted.
In the back of the burned home is where 21-year-old Jeremy Evans lived.
He had been renting a room for six months, from Lee Pace.
She says Jeremy had recently moved into the master bedroom, which had drapes all around.
"It had 16 pair of drapes, 16 pair of drapes around it. I just feel like those drapes were like a wildfire." says Pace.
Jeremy was one of three renters who paid around $100 a week to live in the house.
Code Enforcement officials say it's perfectly legal. In fact, up to four unrelated people can rent out rooms in your house.
"It's treated just like a single family residence. You can have one bathroom." says Allen Medlock with the Memphis Shelby County Code Enforcement.
But homeowners do have to keep the properties up to fire code.
"The most important thing is to make sure they have a smoke detector, the smoke detector is in working order and every sleeping room they are in has an operable window in it. If they can't get out the bedroom door, they can get out the window." says Medlock.
The fire department is still investigation the cause of the fire and of the Jeremy's death.
"We have smoke detectors everywhere in there. Couple of times my son had gone over and found they had taken the batteries out or something. But the guy downstairs heard the fire alarms last night, heard it going off upstairs." says Pace.
Two other people who rented a room in the house were able to escape the fire.
Code inspectors did not have any records of code violations at the home.
- Fire at a home in Raleigh leaves young renter dead
- Code enforcement says it's legal to have up to four unrelated people living in single residential home
- Landlord at the burned home says there were smoke detectors inside
april.thompson@wreg.com
(Memphis 6/10/2009) The inside of the home at 4007 Plymouth Road is gutted.
In the back of the burned home is where 21-year-old Jeremy Evans lived.
He had been renting a room for six months, from Lee Pace.
She says Jeremy had recently moved into the master bedroom, which had drapes all around.
"It had 16 pair of drapes, 16 pair of drapes around it. I just feel like those drapes were like a wildfire." says Pace.
Jeremy was one of three renters who paid around $100 a week to live in the house.
Code Enforcement officials say it's perfectly legal. In fact, up to four unrelated people can rent out rooms in your house.
"It's treated just like a single family residence. You can have one bathroom." says Allen Medlock with the Memphis Shelby County Code Enforcement.
But homeowners do have to keep the properties up to fire code.
"The most important thing is to make sure they have a smoke detector, the smoke detector is in working order and every sleeping room they are in has an operable window in it. If they can't get out the bedroom door, they can get out the window." says Medlock.
The fire department is still investigation the cause of the fire and of the Jeremy's death.
"We have smoke detectors everywhere in there. Couple of times my son had gone over and found they had taken the batteries out or something. But the guy downstairs heard the fire alarms last night, heard it going off upstairs." says Pace.
Two other people who rented a room in the house were able to escape the fire.
Code inspectors did not have any records of code violations at the home.
