Firefighter Death Prompts Missouri University to Inspect all Buildings

The University of Missouri has hired an engineering company to inspect all of its buildings after a walkway collapsed at a university-run apartment complex last week, killing a firefighter.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports the university hired the firm, Trabue, Hansen & Hinshaw Inc., to inspect 1,300 campus buildings, including storage facilities. University spokesman Christian Basi says the university isn’t giving the company a deadline for completing the inspections.

John Smith, a structural engineer with the firm, says the buildings on the list are all across the state, including farms and university extension offices.

Lt. Bruce Britt was on the second-floor walkway of University Village Apartments when the walkway collapsed Saturday morning. Britt, a 23-year veteran of the force, was pronounced dead at a hospital. No residents were injured.