<table> </table> The other day I posed a question for which the answer seemed blatantly obvious, to me anyway.</p><p>When it came to writing new rules to keep nursing home residents from dying in fires, whose advice would you put more stock in?</p><p>That of the state fire marshal? Or the nursing home industry?</p><p>Clearly, you&#8217;d go with the fire safety expert &#8212; or so was my take.</p><p>Not surprisingly, the nursing home industry disagrees. However, I was unable to reach the executive director of the Missouri Health Care Association before publication to get a more detailed response.</p><p>So today it&#8217;s Jon Dolan&#8217;s turn. As the chief spokesman for the nursing home industry in Missouri, he&#8217;s in the best position to explain the industry&#8217;s position.</p><p>Why was Missouri Fire Marshal Randy Cole wrong to recommend that smoke detectors be required in every bedroom of every nursing home, assisted-living center and group home in the state?</p><p>&#8220;If we&#8217;re going to err, we&#8217;re going to err on the side of safety,&#8221; Cole told me.</p><p>But Dolan says it&#8217;s not that simple. What with the potential for false alarms &#8212; 14 for every legitimate one, Dolan says &#8212; and the difficulty in evacuating fragile, bedridden people whenever someone burns a piece of toast, individual smoke detectors could be downright dangerous, he said.</p><p>&#8220;You put a smoke detector in every room, and because of a steamy shower it goes off throughout the building?&#8221; Dolan said.</p><p>&#8220;If I evacuated on every false alarm, it&#8217;ll eventually kill one of our residents.&#8221;</p><p>Well, yeah, maybe. Or maybe not. Dolan, a former state legislator, might be overstating it just a bit. It&#8217;s not like the smoke detectors already in nursing homes, properly located and installed, are considered a public health menace. They&#8217;re more likely to save lives than take them.</p><p>Still, it&#8217;s worth considering his concern. And he also has one irrefutable point. Although smoke detectors are required in every care facility, there is no specific requirement for smoke detectors in every bedroom under the new Missouri law at the heart of this dispute.</p><p>It was passed after a 2006 fire at a group home for the mentally ill and disabled in Anderson, Mo. Ten patients and one employee died.</p><p>That facility had no sprinkler system and a record of fire-safety violations.</p><p>So the new law, Section 198.074 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, requires fire-safety upgrades, including sprinkler systems and smoke alarms, in care facilities across the state as early as the end of this year. Indeed, industry groups supported the bill, Dolan points out.</p><p>&#8220;We heavily supported this bill, as did the Assisted Living Association,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Some 85 percent of the skilled nursing facilities in the state already have sprinkler systems, he said, and all meet National Fire Protection Association standards.</p><p>But here&#8217;s where it gets sticky. Among the new state mandates: a complete fire alarm system, which includes, &#8220;but (is) not limited to, interconnected smoke detectors throughout the facility,&#8221; along with other requirements.</p><p>Members of Dolan&#8217;s association are fine with that. But they disagree with Cole&#8217;s interpretation that &#8220;throughout&#8221; means a smoke detector in every room.</p><p>We&#8217;re not going to settle that debate today. But the Missouri General Assembly could when it meets next year, rather than in the midst of the current administrative rules process.</p><p>&#8220;If you want &#8230; a different standard, then write the law,&#8221; Dolan said.</p><p>Well, as a matter of fact, Rep. Kevin Wilson might do just that, if the final rules don&#8217;t end up requiring a smoke detector in every room.</p><p>The Neosho Republican introduced the legislation that ultimately passed to improve fire safety in care facilities.</p><p>Although Wilson agrees with the industry that his bill didn&#8217;t spell out smoke detectors in every room, he does happen to side with the state fire marshal.</p><p>&#8220;I would prefer to err on the side of caution and safety,&#8221; he told me.</p><p>Hey, if the safety of one of my family members was at stake, that&#8217;s the side on which I&#8217;d hope the state would err. Wouldn&#8217;t you?