Fire-ravaged San Rafael complex had history of broken smoke alarms

By Richard Halstead | rhalstead@marinij.com | Marin Independent Journal

PUBLISHED: November 8, 2025 at 5:07 PM PST

While there is still no word on what caused a fatal fire in an apartment complex in San Rafael, city records show that the property had a history of inoperable smoke alarms and other fire safety violations.

The fire at 516 Canal St. killed two residents and injured eight others on Aug. 21. San Rafael police Lt. Scott Eberle said the investigation is ongoing and he had “no new information to report.”

“It can take months for the evidence to be examined by the Department of Justice,” Eberle said.

In the wake of the fire, police requested assistance from Marin County’s fire investigation team and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency within the Department of Justice, Eberle said.

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“All agencies worked collaboratively to collect evidence and identify anything that may be suspicious,” Eberle said. “As with any ongoing investigation, we are not releasing specific details at this time.”

Tracey Lowmiller and Pamela Scoggins, two women in their 60s who lived in the 19-apartment building, died in the fire. The fire displaced more than 50 residents.

San Rafael fire Deputy Chief Robert Sinnott said in August that the complex had passed its latest fire safety inspection conducted by the fire department the month before and “passed with a reasonable degree of compliance.”

However, in a subsequent email, Sinnott wrote, “Testing of apartment unit smoke detectors is not part of the annual fire department safety inspection. The fire department inspection includes outside and common areas only. The testing of apartment unit smoke detectors is included as part of the city of San Rafael code enforcement division housing inspection program. This inspection process is on a five year cycle.”

According to San Rafael city code, “The community development director, or his or her designee, shall cause each apartment and hotel to be inspected by the city’s code enforcement officials once every five years, or more frequently as needed, to ensure compliance with all applicable city ordinances or other laws relating to such housing.”

An examination of city records shows that the last time the inside of the apartments were inspected by the city prior to the fire was in March 2020. The initial report contained six safety violations for nonfunctioning or missing smoke alarms.

Other violations included: a blocked heater, prohibited use of extension cords, use of a charcoal barbecue within 10 feet of a combustible structure, use of a furnace closet for storage of combustibles, use of propane within 10 feet of a combustible structure and two inoperable carbon monoxide detectors.

Records show that when the building was reinspected on July 8, 2020, nine safety violations for nonfunctioning or missing smoke alarms were noted. Four of them were in apartments cited during the March inspection, and the other five were discovered in apartments that were not mentioned in the March report.

During the July inspection, there were also three violations for prohibited use of extension cords and a violation for the use of a furnace closet for storage of combustibles.

All of these violations had been corrected by the time of a third inspection was conducted on Dec. 16, 2020, but that inspection cited three violations for smoking on apartment balconies.

Nonfunctioning smoke alarms in the complex seemed to be a recurring problem. When the complex was inspected by the city on June 25, 2014, the most recent inspection prior to the 2020 inspection, there were six citations for nonfunctioning smoke alarms. That inspection occurred more than six years prior to the 2020 inspection.

“It is the property owner’s responsibility to ensure that building components, such as apartment unit smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, are in working order,” Angela Robinson Pinon, a San Rafael assistant city manager, said in an email.

The owner of the building, Scott Bassin, declined to comment.

“The city strives to comply with the five-year inspection cycle for all apartment units as outlined in the Housing Inspection Program,” Pinon said. “However, due to staffing shortages in recent years, it has been challenging to maintain that schedule consistently. The pandemic also contributed to delays, as in-person inspections were temporarily suspended to comply with health and safety protocols.”

“We are now fully staffed and working diligently to bring all properties back on schedule,” she said. “It’s important to note that code enforcement staff manage several other citywide programs in addition to the housing inspection program, which can also impact scheduling and inspection capacity.”

Asked why San Rafael conducts inspections only once every five years, Pinon said, “I can’t go back in time to determine why the City Council in 2001 selected five versus three versus seven years.”

“The city has not discussed or implemented any plans to increase the inspection frequency,” she added.

The San Rafael housing inspection program applies to buildings with three or more apartments. U.S. Census data indicate there are 7,891 renter-occupied apartments in buildings with three or more apartments in San Rafael. The city employs three inspectors and a supervisor. It also contracts with another inspector for massage parlors.

“This was a tragic event and the city’s investigation is actively underway to determine why it happened,” San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin said. “It’s premature to speculate on causes until we have all the facts, but the investigation will be thorough.”

Omar Carrera, chief executive of Canal Alliance, said that all the families displaced by the fire have been placed in permanent housing.

“Achieving this is in just over two months was truly a marathon effort,” Carrera said.

“I’ve heard from some of the fire refugees that the fire alarm system did not go off. They told me the alarm wasn’t activated, and they were unsure whether the building had sprinklers,” Carrera said. “Some also expressed confusion about how the building could have recently passed a fire safety inspection.”

Carrera stressed that he couldn’t verify these accounts, saying, “this is what the fire refugees shared with me.”

City Attorney Robert Epstein, in an email, said, “The cause of the fire at 516 Canal Street remains undetermined and there is no evidence that the fire was or wasn’t connected to any fire inspection or any items that were or weren’t inspected.”

The demolition of the building, which began on Oct. 24, couldn’t come soon enough for people who live in the area.

In a Sept. 30 letter to the mayor and City Council, Marianne Owens said, “Five weeks after the devastating and tragic fire in the Canal neighborhood, residents remain directly exposed to toxic ash and debris. The burned structure remains exposed, with no protective covering or containment in place.”

The city issued a permit to allow demolition to begin on Oct. 21.

Owens also raised questions regarding emergency alerts during the fire.

“Our neighborhood was left unwarned during a deadly fire, while other communities were notified,” she said. “Why did the emergency alert system fail to notify the Canal neighborhood?”

Pinon said a Nixle message was sent to all San Rafael subscribers asking them to stay away from the area at 6:30 a.m. on the day of the fire, about an hour after the fire started. Nixle is a free notification system used by public safety agencies to transmit alerts and advisories to residents via text message, email and the web.

“Staff have investigated the concerns regarding a failure in the alerting system and have determined that the system worked as intended,” Pinon said. “There was no need for action from the larger area at the time of the fire, so no immediate alert was sent.”