SUSIE C. SPEAR
News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.
(TNS)
GREENSBORO — In the very week a crime-plagued budget hotel was working to remodel and upgrade its rooms, fire from faulty wiring broke out in a vacant unit early Sunday, displacing 21 people, according to the motel’s property manager and authorities.
No injuries were reported from the fire at the Arcadia Inn, formerly called the Cavalier Inn, at 312 West J.J. Drive, according to the Greensboro Police Department’s news release.
“I got woke up by the fire department saying a building was on fire,’’ said Tabitha Davis, the property manager who worked with volunteers Monday morning to load clothing and other belongings on a trailer bed for delivery to area motels where lodgers were rehoused.
“The fire was called in at about 6:45 a.m., but it wasn’t contained until about 11 a.m.,” Davis said.
A lodger had smelled smoke at 3 a.m., but ignored it until daybreak, she said.
“It was so sad. Some of these people lost completely everything,” Davis said. “There was one family that had children, and all their stuff was destroyed.’’
On Sunday, a Greensboro Transit Authority bus shuttled those residents in need of lodging to alternate shelters, authorities said.
First responders, including 68 firefighters, reported at about 7:10 a.m. to the scene between Randleman Road and South Elm-Eugene Street, officials said.
The 104-room two-story motel, which is divided into three free-standing sections, has long been an extended-stay mainstay for people on a fixed income, with monthly rent ranging from $700-$800, Davis said. “We’re the cheapest on this side of town,’’ Davis said.
The address has seen violent crime in recent years, including a homicide at the Cavalier Inn in 2019, according to news reports.
The motel, with charred and gutted rooms visible from the parking lot, sits in an area referred to as the Randleman Road Corridor, between Glendale Drive and West J.J. Drive.
Area residents complained to the Greensboro City Council in 2021 that calls to authorities about crimes, including narcotics, domestic disputes, gunfire, disorderly conduct and prostitution, had spiked in the hundreds for the area that includes the motel and other nearby businesses, such as the CSL Plasma Center and a Food Lion, according to news reports.
Despite its tarnished reputation and scores of poor online reviews of the motel that describe roach and bed bug infestations, holes in walls, leaking ceilings, mold, and carpet obscuring holes in floors, the motel has community where loyal friendships are born, Davis said.
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“We’re like a family here. It really is like family,’’ she said. “And right now, we’re trying to get food and things to the people who were moved because of the fire.’’
The Guilford County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the blaze to determine its cause and to assess monetary and structural damage, authorities said.
