Rooms Closed at Hotel With Faulty Heaters

City building inspectors have ordered 36 rooms at a San Diego hotel closed because of faulty heaters similar to the one that killed one young man and critically injured another New Year’s Day.

The Mission Valley Inn was given 30 days to repair the heaters or face possible fines.

In a letter to Hank Hoxie, a vice president of Atlas Hotels, which owns the inn, the Building Inspection Department listed violations found in 83 of the 190 hotel rooms inspected, including faulty heaters, inoperative smoke alarms and defective thermostats.

Problems in 47 of the rooms were handled with minor repairs, department spokesman Jack Brandais said.

If the remaining 36 rooms are found to be occupied before the heaters are repaired, the department will seek civil penalties, Brandais said.

The rooms are now closed, city officials said.

Requests for comment from hotel officials were referred to Hoxie, who was unavailable for comment Friday. In a press release issued Jan. 2, before the city completed its inspection, he said, “Our technical staff immediately conducted an inspection of the heating units at the Mission Valley Inn and they have determined that these units are working properly and safely.”

Cory Louis Korosi, 21, and Henry Kim Wong, 20, members of the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology men’s volleyball team, were overcome by fumes from a malfunctioning natural gas heater in their hotel room Tuesday. An inspection of the room’s heater revealed it was clogged with dirt and soot.

By the time hotel staff could enter the bolted room, Korosi had died and Wong was unconscious from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Wong’s condition was upgraded Friday from critical to serious.

The team canceled its plans to play four exhibition matches and flew home Friday. When he moved from the Mission Valley Inn to another hotel after the incident, coach William Gow said one of the first things he did was turn off the room’s heater.

“We have not been contacted by the (Mission Valley) hotel at this date,” Gow said. “No one from Atlas has contacted the team.”

Experts from the Fire Department, the Building Inspection Department and the San Diego Regional Poison Information Center said carbon monoxide poisoning from faulty heaters increases every winter.