
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 1, 1995                   TAG: 9504030054
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALMENA HUGHES
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FIRE ALARM INTERRUPTS HOTEL ROANOKE LUNCHEON

The bells, or rather buzzers, ringing during an employee-training luncheon Friday at the Hotel Roanoke weren't for room service. They were summoning the fire inspector.

A little before 5 p.m., following a day of tests mandated by city fire inspectors, the hotel's alarm system was connected to the Roanoke Fire Department. That cleared the way for issuing a permanent Certificate of Occupancy - one more hurdle to opening.

``Unfortunately, we don't call the shots as to when the testing is to be done - the fire inspector does,'' said Phil Davis, director of food and beverages.

After hearing the alarms being tested over the past month or so, Davis said, he and other employees have more or less tuned them out. But, he said, there are more than 1,000 fire-prevention apparatuses in the building, and one memorable week, each of them was tested.

``Now, that was bad,'' he recalled.

by CNB