ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512170008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
THE FIRE MARSHAL says he's no Grinch, but elderly residents of Friendship Manor are disappointed he ruled their Christmas tree unsafe.
Administrators at Friendship Manor retirement home liked the 10-foot Fraser fir they set up in the activities building the first day of December.
They adorned it with 100 snowflakes crocheted by resident Bobbie Cundiff and with 150 of her hand-painted plastic foam snowmen.
Wednesday, the tree was hauled to the landfill and the ornaments packed away after a fire marshal declared the tree in violation of three safety code sections.
Residents, many without trees in their private rooms, are sad at the loss of the tall, wide evergreen.
Roanoke County Fire Marshal Donald Gillespie said an assistant marshal correctly determined the tree had to be treated with a fire retardant or replaced with a flame-resistant tree. Gillespie said that was because the tree was in a public building - one that includes a beauty parlor, chapel and indoor pool and is visited often by people other than residents.
By law, he said, Christmas trees and all decorative materials inside places of public assembly must be noncombustible or flame-resistant, and that wasn't true of the Fraser fir.
Residents have complained to county officials about the tree's fate. Gillespie says he's sorry, but his department received an anonymous complaint about the tree and Assistant Fire Marshal Rodney Ferguson was right to find it unsafe.
Gillespie was irked that the tree was replaced with a table of poinsettias and a card explaining that a fire marshal was responsible for the loss of the tree.
The implication was, "That mean old fire marshal Rodney Ferguson made us take it down." That's unfair, Gillespie said. "We don't ride around trying to mess up people's Christmas."
He's received complaints about two other trees in public places and those people were more cooperative. He said Hanover Direct Inc., a mail-order company, treated a tree in its lobby after company officials were made aware of the safety code.
Friendship Manor had the option of taking the ornaments off the tree, spraying it with a fire retardant and redecorating it. Spokesman Ken Srpan said retardants are sticky and damage ornaments, so he threw the tree out. Two small artificial ones still sparkle within the building, called the Residents' Center.
"If we're indeed in violation, we're going to comply," Srpan said. "It's just sad, that's all."
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. Bobbie Cundiff, a resident atby CNBFriendship Manor, with some of the ornaments she made for the
residents' 10-foot Christmas tree. color.