Fire Code

With the Preakness days away, Baltimore officials approved renovations at Pimlico Race Course yesterday, capping a frenzied six weeks of work to fix fire code violations that had threatened the safety of racing fans. Although two of the 10 violations remain, city officials said they are satisfied for now with the track's temporary safety measures. "The facility is three to four times as safe as it was before," said Zack Germroth, spokesman for the city's Department of Housing and Community Development.

Cracking down on after-hours clubs that operate as illegal adult entertainment bars, Baltimore city officials have closed three of them after a weekend of undercover investigations.Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III said yesterday that the increased covert scrutiny, sparked by the recent fatal shooting of two college students outside a nightclub that was operating illegally, will continue into the weekend.Club Colossus at 1049B Hillen St. and Simon Says at 600 N. Montford St. were shut last weekend by housing, police and fire officials for violating zoning laws and operating without proper permits.

A Worcester County District Court decree signed yesterday gives the Carousel Hotel and condominiums four months to comply with Ocean City fire and building codes.Under the agreement, which extends a 10-day deadline imposed on the property by safety inspectors, town safety officials will monitor the repairs closely as they are made between now and April 30, the new deadline.Also spelled out is a schedule for specific repairs and renovations to correct 40 violations of Ocean City building and fire codes.

Fires Monday and yesterday that damaged downtown's Knickerbocker office building and led to a woman's death in the Charles Center Towers might have been confined to single rooms had sprinklers been installed, city officials said.But both buildings, constructed in 1891 and 1969, respectively, went up before modern fire codes took effect and are exempt from the stricter rules.Though both lacked the protective devices, each was completely up to code and in full compliance with the law, officials said.

An unplanned inspection of Howard County's Circuit Court building has turned up a series of fire code violations - including exposed wires, overloaded outlets and storage too close to sprinkler heads - in the cramped, historic structure. Fire and risk management officials visited the building two weeks ago at the request of the sheriff's office to update the court's evacuation plan. But that visit turned into an inspection when a fire official noticed violations, said fire Chief Joseph Herr.

Pimlico Race Course is rife with fire and safety violations that threaten the lives of 25,000 horse racing fans who attend the annual Preakness, city housing officials said yesterday. The year-old violations, which include a lack of sprinklers, fire alarms and exits, have left the city Department of Housing and Community Development threatening to take track operators to court to force them to correct the problems at the ailing 130-year-old course before the trumpets blare on Preakness Day, May 20. "It was our understanding that these issues were going to be dealt with," said city building inspector John Cole.

The Dundalk house where a mother and four daughters were killed in a weekend fire had been cited in July for eight housing violations, including lack of functioning smoke detectors on the second floor and evidence of problems with the furnace. A month later, when inspectors found that the deficiencies had not been corrected and after repeated, unsuccessful attempts to reach the landlord of the duplex, the Baltimore County Department of Social Services gave the tenant, Michelle Ferguson, a choice: Accept a voucher to move somewhere else, or continue living there at her own risk.

A former Maryland legislator says a national chain of photo studios fired him after he caught the company using a secret racial code to alert employees when they were scheduled to work at black churches.Frank M. Conaway Sr., a former West Baltimore delegate, said Olan Mills, a chain of portrait studios based in Chattanooga, Tenn., fired him and his son, Frank M. Conaway Jr., as salesmen last month in retaliation for blowing the whistle on the racial code.He said the company's racial codes allowed it to steer the Conaways to black churches and away from more lucrative white parish accounts.

COLLEGE PARK -- A University of Maryland student about to begin his last college semester died in a fire in his off-campus basement apartment early yesterday morning, trapped inside a building that fire officials said had been cited for being unsafe. David Ellis, a 22-year-old senior majoring in American studies, was taken from his bedroom, where he was found unconscious and not breathing by firefighters. He was rushed to Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, where he was pronounced dead, said Mark E. Brady, spokesman for the Prince George's County Fire Department.

The directions to the alleged brothel told the men that if they saw a house with green awnings, they'd gone too far. But some of them apparently misunderstood; would-be customers have shown up for years at the nearby house in Towson. Despite neighbors' complaints, police say, Di Zhang, 42, continued to operate the brothel from a white Colonial-style suburban home on Joppa Road, advertising on websites until this month, when county police and federal agents moved in. Neighbors said they weren't surprised to learn that Zhang, the operator of Jade Heart Health, had been charged with prostitution and human trafficking.