An Armstrong County man criticized the media and public officials, including the Allegheny County district attorney, for raising the possibility that there were no smoke detectors at a house he owns in McKeesport where a young girl died in a fire last month.

Kevin Kamenski of Sugarceek Township, owner of Steel City Realty, also defended himself against reports that branded him an “absentee landlord.”

“I think a lot of people jumped the gun,” he told the Butler Eagle this week.

Kamenski recently found himself in the middle of a tragedy March 23 when 2-year-old Ayanna Brooks was killed in a fire at her family’s two-story rental house on Soles Street in McKeesport.

Investigators determined that the girl’s 5-year-old cousin deliberately started the fire with a lighter.

Ayanna died of smoke inhalation, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office, after the blaze trapped her in an upstairs bedroom.

Three other children, including the 5-year-old, and a woman escaped from the house and were not hurt.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., immediately after the fire suggested to Pittsburgh media that Kamenski may have violated an ordinance that requires smoke detectors in all rental homes.

Zappala was quoted in a newspaper and did an interview for a televised news report.

“I was upset at Zappala,” Kamenski said. “I think he spoke before he had the facts.”

Kamenski said the rental house destroyed in the fire had seven smoke detectors — one on each floor, one in the basement and one in each of the four bedrooms.

“That property was just inspected (in February),” he said of the house, a designated Section 8 property, like many of his company’s other rental properties, primarily in Allegheny County.

In McKeesport, the housing authority by law must inspect each subsidized unit at least once a year to ensure compliance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards.

Kamenski acknowledged he received a notice of some “deficiencies” at the house on Soles Street. But the inspection did not cite any problems with the smoke detectors, he said.

Smoke detectors are examined as part of the inspection. They must work.

Additionally, smoke detectors must be located outside each sleeping area and on each floor of the rental unit.

Mike Manko, a spokesman for Zappala, did not return a telephone call this week. Instead, Manko, following Kamenski’s criticism, sent an e-mail meant to clarify what his boss previously told reporters.

“Our office has not been told conclusively that there were no alarms and our office is in the process of securing the most recent inspection paperwork regarding that structure which may help investigators to determine if a smoke alarm was present,” the e-mail said.

Kamenski said questions about the detectors surfaced when investigators were unable to find any remnants of alarms and neighbors were unable to recall hearing any alarms.

“There was no roof, no floor, and no ceiling left after that fire,” Kamenski said. “Why would anyone think there would be any smoke detectors left?

He guessed the detectors burned up in the blaze.

Don Brucker, the Allegheny County deputy fire marshal investigating the blaze, did not return telephone calls this week.

Kamenski also took offense to his characterization of being something of a truant landlord.

Following the fire, Zappala and McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko claimed that more than half of the houses in the city are owned by absentee landlords, like Kamenski.

“I manage my properties,” he said. “I’m physically down there (in McKeesport) all the time, doing the work with my crew.”

Kamenski said he owns “quite a few” house in McKeesport. He declined to say how many.