Motel Guests Forced To Evacuate After Officials Condemn Building

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Guests were forced to evacuate a motel on Banksville Road after officials condemned the building Friday afternoon.

The front building of the Motel 6 was recently demolished, but at least 10 of the 40 rooms in the back building were still occupied.

Officials condemned that building Friday afternoon, and guests were instructed to vacate the premises.

"We got this weird knock on the door, and I opened the door and there were about five police officers there," one guest said, "and they said the hotel was condemned and it was considered unsafe."

"The Banksville community and travelers need to know, this is no longer a place where people will be staying," said Pittsburgh Public Safety spokesperson Sonya Toler.

The rear building was at one time connected to the front building by a skywalk. But once that came down, the options to get in or out were limited, which is why the building has officially been condemned.

Some guests told KDKA's Lynne Hayes-Freeland that the Red Cross had placed them in the Motel 6, and now the Red Cross is helping them find a new place to stay.

"This building doesn't have sufficient exits to be occupied by the people that are here, and that places them in imminent danger," Pittsburgh Fire Bureau Chief Darryl Jones said.

Everyone had to be out of the building by Friday night.

In a statement, the motel's manager said the demolition of the front building "may have created an inadvertent fire exit issue."

The manager says there are plans to renovate the back building into a "Unique Boutique Hotel" after the building is up to code.