Because the property-owning voter block are experts at inventing contrived reasons that they pretend to care for the safety of tenants, by implementing policies that drive up rent and property prices by regulating housing into more scarcity. A good way to do this is to start screaming about fires as soon as you start packing more people in, no matter that it comes at the expense of tenants being less to afford medicine, good food, education, childcare and other necessities.

Mass casualty events get a disproportionate amount of attention. Like the 2016 Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse fire.