Contractor Connected to North Carolina Motel Deaths Told to Cease Work

A judge has ordered that a company that installed a used swimming pool water heater at a Boone, N.C., motel where three people died to never again work as a plumbing, heating or fire sprinkler contactor.

The Charlotte Observer reported the injunction had been requested by the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors.

Three guests at the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza died of carbon monoxide poisoning last year when the gas seemed into their room a floor above the pool water heater location.

Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens issued the order against Appalachian Hospitality Management and three employees. The injunction said the defendants denied they had acted as contractors but agreed to go along with the consent order.