SALISBURY — Quality Inn has closed its doors temporarily while the hotel makes repairs after a pipe burst.
Patrons at the hotel, located at 825 Klumac Road, had to evacuate Friday morning after the lobby began filling with water. The incident occurred at 9:33 a.m.
The Salisbury Fire Department was called to provide assistance when a sprinkler pipe in the attic broke and water began trickling down to the first floor lobby, said Battalion Chief Currie Butler.
Butler said the water caused some ceiling tiles to come undone. The fire department assisted the hotel in shutting off the water and evacuating about 20 people. There were no injuries reported.
The majority of the hotel’s guests, many of them construction workers, were not at the hotel at the time of the evacuation.
Butler said there were about 15 occupied rooms that had to be emptied. The fire department called Duke Energy to turn off the electricity.
Butler said there wasn’t excessive flooding — the water was less than 6 inches deep — but the hotel did sustain a fair amount of water damage.
“There was a lot of water left in the pipes. Even after we shut it down, it was still draining down,” Butler said.
The fire department left the scene at 11:18 a.m.
Phone calls to Choice Hotels, the parent company of Quality Inn, were not returned Thursday.
Before the hotel can reopen, it will need an electrical inspection as a safety precaution, fire officials said.