By Mike Morris and Saeed Ahmed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A west Georgia motel was heavily damaged Tuesday morning by an explosion and fire, authorities said. A hotel worker is missing.
The blast occurred shortly before 9 a.m. in the ground floor of the maintenance building of the Great Western Inn, on U.S. 27 in Bremen, said state Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine.
The impact caused the two-story building, which housed the hotel’s laundry room and the hot water heater, to pancake down, Oxendine said.
Investigators said it appeared to be a gas explosion.
The maintenance building is connected to the main hotel by a breezeway. Bremen fire Chief Clark Farr said six to eight rooms were destroyed by the blast.
Large portions of the motel fell over sideways into the parking lot, Oxendine said. A washing machine was thrown out of one building through the breezeway and punched through the wall of the other building, he said.
By Tuesday evening, rescue workers still had not been able to find the body of a hotel maintenance worker who was unaccounted for and possibly killed in the blast.
Most of the hotel’s occupants had checked out for the day. Only three or four people were inside the building at the time of the explosion, said Bremen police Chief Richard Harrison. He said all the motel’s guests were accounted for.