D.C. inspectors will be inspecting housing units on Prospect Street following the death of a Georgetown University student in an apartment fire over the weekend. Although 3318 Prospect St. had fire alarms and met code, Daniel Rigby, 21, had been sleeping in the same room where faulty wiring leading to the house’s furnace sparked the fatal blaze.

From the Post:

City inspectors, residents and university officials had been discussing the rental problems for the past few months, but Rigby’s death led to today’s action, Clark said.

While DCist understands the need for inspections, we’re frustrated that it had to take a death to get action. There are hundreds of substandard, crowded (and in some cases, illegal) apartments crammed into older housing stock in Georgetown and other areas across the city. We even know of some off-campus student housing in Georgetown that is actually part of old slave quarters … and the conditions haven’t improved much in the past century and a half.

(Photo of the Prospect Street fire aftermath from Yakusha.)