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Published November 24, 2007 05:51 pm - ANDERSON, Mo. — Even now, almost a year later, Lawrence Henson gets mad when he thinks about it. Has anything changed as a result of Anderson Guest House fire? By Derek Spellman and Melissa Dunson
news@joplinglobe.com ANDERSON, Mo. — Even now, almost a year later, Lawrence Henson gets mad when he thinks about it. “It should not have happened,” he said of the Nov. 27, 2006, fire that gutted the Anderson Guest House, killing 11 people, including his sister, Patricia Henson. “I got aggravated with myself for not saying anything.” At least once a week, Henson drove to the Guest House to see his sister. Patricia Henson lived a simple life of coloring and needlepoint inside the Guest House, a single-story, cement-block home for the mentally disabled. During his visits, Henson said, he noted little things indicating problems if the home’s inhabitants needed to evacuate. Many residents were medicated, and there did not appear to be many ways to quickly exit the building. Even now, he can’t say whether any one person or entity is at fault, and there is still a debate about what has changed since the fire. Henson noted that laws have been toughened and added, “I believe they are making strides.” But he also said it’s too soon to know if any good has come from the tragedy. That problem is one of human nature, Henson said, and he is not sure how it could be addressed. “Every day, we see little things and we don’t say anything,” he said. The problem is particularly troublesome for the mentally ill, he said, who are left on the edge of society, “out of sight, out of mind.” “There were so many of them there (at the Anderson Guest House),” he said. “They were put in there, and then they were forgotten.” Oversight Jane Drummond previously was general counsel for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. It was in that capacity that she met with other department officials on Jan. 17, 2006, to discuss how Joplin River of Life Ministries could continue operating group homes in Anderson, Joplin and elsewhere despite a history of violations, and whether the state could shut down those operations. 
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