Crime and Courts: Madison fire marshal says law would kill local fire code

Since 2007, when a campus-area fire in a home with disabled smoke detectors killed a 23-year-old man, the city has been on a mission to require tamper-resistant or hard-wired smoke detectors in apartment buildings and homes. That effort culminated in 2009 with a city ordinance that officials say has helped prevent any fire deaths since. But a proposed state law could wipe that ordinance off the books, according to Madison Fire Marshal Ed Ruckriegel.