900,000 Ohioans live in mobile or trailer homes 鈥� manufactured homes, as they鈥檙e known. Gov. John Kasich wants to merge that oversees those homes with the , which has more than 800 employees.
says a four-year study of state data shows there are more fatal fires in manufactured homes in Ohio than in any other surrounding state.
鈥淲e found that you are 4.2 times more likely to die in a manufactured home residence than you are in a standard one- and two-family,鈥� he said.
The does inspections and issues licenses with a $1.2 million annual budget. Kasich has proposed streamlining inspections by folding the commission into the Department of Commerce, which includes the fire marshal鈥檚 office.
But the commission says it disputes the state鈥檚 fire deaths data and says it has the support of manufactured home residents, and that resident complaints have dropped since the commission was created.
