June 18--MYRTLE BEACH -- Several international students, in Myrtle Beach to work for the summer, were forced to look for housing Monday afternoon, after city fire department officials ordered part of the hotel they occupied to close, citing unsafe conditions.
Myrtle Beach Fire Marshal Bruce Arnel said several safety issues were found Monday during an inspection at the Calypso Inn on the corner of First Avenue North and Flagg Street.
"We received numerous complaints from the guests of the hotel stating that the rooms were overcrowded and there were safety concerns," he said.
He said firefighters found that missing smoke detectors and overcrowding were the two biggest issues.
Arnel said 13 to 14 people were found to be in apartment-like rooms, and hotel rooms that should've only had four people in each, had seven or eight inside. Arnel said the closure did not apply to the entire hotel.
The hotel owner did not answer phone calls for comment Monday.
"The building department posted one of the back buildings as unsafe and the third floor of another building as unsafe," Arnel said. "Those are the ones that were evacuated."
Arnel said the hotel operators have until 8 a.m. Tuesday to bring the numbers of remaining people staying at the inn down to capacity.
"It's not our intention to put people out," Arnel said.
"We try to work with the business owners. But this was a case where it was severely overcrowded and we had to do what we had to do."
The majority of people those affected by the closure were international students. It was unclear Monday where those people found housing.
Contact AMANDA KELLEY at 626-0381, or follow her at Twitter.com/TSN_akelley.
Copyright 2013 - The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
