Tennessee State Director of Codes Enforcement Christopher R. Bainbridge has ordered the occupants of the Oasis Hotel in La Vergne to be vacated from the residential hotel building after owner Robert Stroop failed to correct more than a dozen imminent safety hazards identified in a Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office inspection.
The building was to be vacated by Sept. 1, though it was still occupied days later.
The La Vergne fire marshal had originally identified safety deficiencies in the building which were serious enough to trigger the inspection by the state fire marshal’s office.
The La Vergne Police Department prepared a 20-page packet of information describing government and non-government community organizations that could assist the displaced tenants find new housing and food and assisting them with their expenses.
A reporter went to the Oasis Hotel to ask tenants if they knew about the information packet. Several tenants said that they did know of the community assistance offers. Some of the tenants moving out of the hotel said, “Are you a reporter? I can’t be seen talking to you. I’ll get in trouble. You need to get the hell out of here right now.”
The Oasis Hotel manager identified herself from the second floor balcony, and said, “If you are a reporter, get the hell off the property. I’m calling the police.”
The process to compel repairs or remove tenants from the building had been a long time coming. State Fire Marshal Inspector Jason Kimbrough conducted an inspection of the Oasis Hotel on June 19, 2018, in response to concerns raised by the La Vergne Fire Marshal’s office. His inspection identified significant problems with electrical panels and their circuit breakers, debris in mechanical areas, exposed wires throughout the facility and mechanical room partitions that were not of one-hour fire-resistant construction, a building code requirement since 1969.
The next day, State Fire Marshal Electrical Inspector Supervisor Joel Crofton conducted an electrical safety inspection at the Oasis Hotel, and identified more electrical deficiencies, many of which were marked as imminent safety hazards.
The hotel owner was supposed to create a Plan of Corrective Action by Aug. 3, 2018. The State Fire Marshal’s Office received the plan from the hotel owner on Aug. 14, 2018.
Kimbrough returned to the Oasis on Sept. 17, 2018, and noted that not all safety deficiencies had been corrected. When he returned on Nov. 5, 2018, he was told by the hotel manager that no further work had been done to correct the deficiencies, according to Bainbridge.
With the Plan to correct deficiencies in place for nearly a year, the owner made it clear to Bainbridge that he did not intend to repair the building’s problems. The State Director of Codes Enforcement then ordered the hotel vacated, in a letter dated Aug. 15, 2019, with the order to vacate all occupants by Sept. 1.
The matter has also been referred to the office of the Tennessee Attorney General for possible further action.
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