Landlord: West Virginia House Had Detectors Before Fire

The landlord of a Charleston, W.Va., house where nine people died in a fire says eight smoke detectors were installed several months before the deadly blaze.

Delores Shamblin of Mammoth tells the Charleston Gazette that a private company installed the detectors last November. She says she had hired the company earlier to inspect the property because she wanted to make sure it met U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards.

Twenty-six-year-old Alisha Carter-Camp, who rented the house, wasn’t a HUD client. Shamblin says she lowered the rent because Carter-Camp was a working, single mother.

Carter-Camp, her three children, her sister’s two children, her boyfriend and his two daughters were killed in Saturday’s fire.

Mayor Danny Jones has said the house had one working smoke detector that wasn’t properly mounted.