Mayor Scolds Assisted Living Center CEO, Residents Moving to Hotels

More than 100 residents of an assisted living center in Chattanooga, Tenn., are being moved to hotel rooms.

The move comes six days after an electrical fire forced their evacuation from Patten Towers and into a shelter, where they have been sleeping on cots at a community center.

Center residents were told of their better quarters on Sunday afternoon. Reporters were not allowed into the meeting and employees of the management company declined comment afterward.

According to the Chattanooga Time Free Press, Mayor Andy Berke sent a stern letter to PK Management, which operates the facility. The letter was a follow-up to a conference call Sunday.

In his letter, Berke scolded PK CEO Robert Kriensky for a tardy response to the fire that caused all 241 residents to be evacuated. More than 100 remained in the shelter over the weekend.

“I find it deplorable and unacceptable that we are still waiting on executives from PK Management to arrive on the scene this many days after the incident occurred,” Berke wrote.

Inspectors found, after the fire in the century-old building last week, that a main electrical control panel had been improperly installed, structural steel was exposed in the building’s columns and three boilers were installed with no record of a permit for them.