By: NICOLAS FIERRO
Salina Post
The Marifah Inn Salina was recently issued a "cease and desist" order by the Kansas State Fire Marshal, after alleged fire code violations were discovered.
According to the Kansas State Fire Marshal, a verbal "cease and desist" order was placed against the motel on Monday, June 9th before a written order was made on Tuesday, June 10th at 4:00 pm. This order instructed the motel to stop all operations during this time.
Before the order took place, Fire Marshal Lance Feyh stated that one of the Salina Fire Department Inspectors conducted a routine inspection at the motel a few weeks ago. During the inspection, the inspector found a certain amount of fire code violations. The motel was then informed by the inspector about the violations, but according to the Fire Marshal, the violations were "not addressed" by the motel.
Afterwards, the Salina Fire Department contacted the Fire Marshal for assistance. The Fire Marshal then sent a state inspector to the motel and discovered fire code violations and several other issues.
According to Feyh, the Marifah Inn did not have enough smoke alarms and did not "satisfy the code violations.”
“We were trying to work with the ownership/management of the motel and they just were not getting things accomplished,” said Feyh.
Feyh commented that the motel had “plenty of notice” regarding the order. He stated that the Salina Fire Department was working with the motel for two weeks before the Fire Marshal became involved.
According to Feyh there was a 24-hour period given to the motel after the verbal cease and desist order was made. The following day is when the written order was made.
“The entire motel was deemed uninhabitable for residents," said Feyh.
Feyh stated there were many concerns about the length of time the guests were staying there for. According to Feyh, there were many residents who were staying there for a long period of time and “were not licensed" to stay there. He also stated that the City of Salina had worked with several different agencies to set up temporary housing for the residents that were going to be displaced from the motel.
"The City of Salina did a great job with their building services, code enforcements and community relations departments in assisting this issue," said Feyh. "They (Marifah Inn) were just doing alot of things wrong for fire and life safety with the motel. Ultimately our goal is to keep citizens of Kansas safe.”
Marifah Inn decided not to speak with the Salina Post regarding this event.