 A young woman hurt in a Grand Rapids apartment fire later died from her injuries. The preliminary investigation revealed that the apartment she was living in likely did not have proper fire safety measures. As our Mal Meyer reports tonight in his investigation, the city currently only checks on apartments for these types of issues when the tenants request it, but it's looking to change that. On April 11th, the Grand Rapids fire department responded to an apartment fire on the 500 block of 3rd Avenue Northwest. 31-year-old Wendy Vrah was seriously burned and taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center where she died three days later. The fire department chief told Lakeland News that there were no sprinklers in the building and was unsure if there were any smoke detectors inside. The city is considering if changes need to be taken to rental codes and inspection procedures to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again. Currently, the city only inspects a property if a renter makes a complaint. Other than that, we have a building code, but that doesn't really involve an annual inspection or anything. A rental code and a rental inspection program, that's different. It's an issue that the city council took up as an outcome goal in 2016. Councilor Rick Blake says that a preliminary task force went to other communities to collect data about their rental codes. Comparing how the budget would work, how many rental units they have, how much they charge for the inspection, how often the inspections occur. The issue has now carried into 2017 where they'll look at the necessity and possible implementation of a similar program in Grand Rapids. We want community members to feel safe in their home and that's why we will be hopefully forming the task force to go out and see what the need is. We've got a discussion related to the residential rental licensing and inspection program. During Monday night's council work session, they discussed who would be part of a task force. Do you think it makes sense to have something from the planning commission on there? Well, the planning commission doesn't regulate building code. The council agreed to look for landlords with various amount of units, representatives from housing development authorities and others. They would also have chances for public input. I would just encourage citizens to to look for that, to know that that is their right to be heard. At the end of the session, the council agreed to put out a public notice for task force applicants. I like the makeup. I like the timeline and I'm supportive of going forward for at least looking at this. In Grand Rapids, I'm Mel Meyer, Lakeland News. The council hopes to have candidates interviewed and selected by their June 12th meeting. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.