Wedgefield man dies in Georgia Holiday Inn fire

(Marietta, Georgia) January 16, 2006 - Fire officials in Marietta said Monday they still had not determined the origin or cause of a three-alarm fire at a Holiday Inn that claimed one life and injured 28 people, including two firefighters.

Kevin Wayne Ardis of Wedgefield, South Carolina was killed. Ardis was in the Atlanta area attending a conference where he was scheduled to receive an award.

Of those injured among more than 160 guests at the seven-story hotel, just one required an overnight hospital stay. The two firefighters had minor injuries and were treated and released, fire officials said.

Marietta Fire Chief Jackie Gibbs said, "This was a major hotel fire. We haven't experienced ever in Marietta, in my history, a hotel fire of this magnitude."

Gibbs, a firefighter for 28 years, said this is the first fatality from fire Marietta has had in several years. Gibbs says at least 20 people had to be rescued by ladder trucks from the burning seven-story hotel, located on Delk and Franklin roads near Interstate 75, just after 3:00am.

The cause of the fire still is being investigated but officials said the fire was believed to have started from a hotel room on the second floor. The hotel sustained "serious" fire damage on floors two through five and had smoke damage throughout the entire building.

The hotel did not have a sprinkler system because it was built more than 30 years ago, before building codes required such safety devices.

Gibbs says the hotel's smoke and fire alarm system was working at the time of the blaze, although guests told Atlanta television stations that the alarms were faint and difficult to hear inside hotel rooms.

Nearly 100 firefighters from Marietta and Cobb County fought the blaze, which took more than an hour to extinguish.

Updated 8:40pm by Bryce Mursch with AP