Fire Codes Push Live Tree for Kansas Governor Outside

As a former Kansas agriculture secretary, Gov. Sam Brownback is a booster of live Christmas trees grown in his state, but he said Friday he had to bow to state fire codes when it came to displaying one in his official residence.

A 10-foot-tall Scotch pine that might have been raised and decorated inside Cedar Crest, the governor’s mansion, went up instead Friday on the Statehouse grounds, near the south steps. Brownback’s office said a lighting ceremony is scheduled for Monday evening.

Brownback acknowledged that Cedar Crest has an artificial tree because of the fire codes, which prohibit live Christmas trees inside state buildings. His comments, of course, raised questions about whether past governors knew about the rule – or ignored it in promoting a yuletide spirit.

The governor said he hated to say his residence has an artificial tree but, “It looks great. It’s legal.”

The live tree arrived Friday at the Statehouse by horse-drawn wagon after being cut from the Memory Lane Christmas Tree Farm in Rantoul, southeast of Ottawa. Harry Peckham, who owns the farm with his wife, said it had been growing there 15 to 20 years, on the “upper end” in size among the 280 or so the farm sells every year.

Brownback said that once he learned of the fire-code issue about a month ago, he worked with tree growers on an alternative to displaying one in Cedar Crest.

“I think this will work better,” he said. “It’s a beautiful tree. It celebrates the season and advertises a Kansas product.”

The fire-code issue isn’t far-fetched. In December 1993, faulty wiring for the Christmas tree in the grand hallway of the Utah governor’s mansion sparked a fire, causing significant damage to the residence.

Brownback said the issue arose at Christmas last year, when Kansas State University wanted to put a live tree in a building and learned they were prohibited. On its website outlining rules for state buildings, the Department of Administration says, “They are fire hazards.”

The governor said Kansas State officials did raise live trees at Cedar Crest as an issue last year, but his predecessor, Mark Parkinson, still had a live tree.

“It is something we could look at, but if they’ve got a legitimate safety issue, I want to look at that,” Brownback said. “We thought rather than trying to deal with that this year, let’s just put it here (on the Statehouse grounds).”

Brownback sidestepped another potential tree trap.

In Rhode Island, Gov. Lincoln Chafee, invoking the state’s founding as a haven for religious dissenters, has insisted upon calling the 17-foot tree on display in the state Capitol a “holiday” tree – even though the state House previously adopted a resolution calling saying it was officially a Christmas tree. The Roman Catholic bishop in Providence called Chafee’s stance “most disheartening,” and the governor has faced a flood of complaints.

Brownback said of the Kansas pine, “This is a Christmas tree, and they can do whatever they decide to do in Rhode Island.”