by KYW's Brad Segall

Even though they have no jurisdiction over building codes, the Montgomery County commissioners are suggesting --  following last week’s fire in Conshohocken -- that it may be time to shake some trees at the state level in an effort to improve those codes.

Commissioner Jim Matthews believes there are thousands of people living in buildings in Montgomery County, Pa. that are built with "wood-truss" construction. That was the case at the Riverwalk at Millennium complex, where the developer was granted a code variance that didn’t require sprinklers in the attics of the four buildings.
 
Matthews says it may be time to lobby to strengthen the codes:

“I would feel remiss as a county organization if we did not pursue on a state level a greater degree of focus toward perhaps code improvement with what we’ve seen as a result of this inferno.”

Matthews added that wood-truss construction is sometimes nicknamed "fireman killer" construction.

Documents from a fire inspection company show that on eight different occasions over the last two years, inspectors pointed out to the owners and borough inspectors that the attics weren’t protected by sprinklers.

The developer maintains the codes worked because no lives were lost in the fire (see previous stories).