Alberta Health Services stepped in and shut down eight hotel rooms at the Astoria Hotel, Oct. 2, after an inspection found an ongoing bed bug infestation at the hotel.
The executive order to vacate the rooms found the infestation contravened the minimum housing and health standards under the Alberta Public Health Act. The executive order will remain in effect until the problem is resolved to the satisfaction of AHS.
“Once the owners of the property advise us that their remediation work is complete, we will review the activities that have been carried out, and we will reinspect. We will also review what is put in place, in terms of monitoring the situation going forward,” wrote Kerry Williamson, communications director for the AHS north zone, in an emailed statement Oct. 6.
The executive order to vacate the rooms came two weeks after AHS ordered the hotel owners to remediate the problem on Sept. 17.
In a follow up inspection on Oct. 2, inspectors found live bed bugs in eight of the hotel's rooms and immediately ordered the hotel to close them.Those rooms include 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 119 and 129. The hotel has 35 rooms.
The executive order also directed the owner to hire a licensed pest-control operator to inspect and treat all bed bug infested suites and common areas.
George Andrew, the owner of the hotel, confirmed the hotel complied with the executive order and is working to eradicate the problem.
He also said the hotel remains open for business.
“We’re actively involved in correcting it at great expense,” said Andrew in a telephone interview on Oct. 1.
“We’ve had our exterminator in on a number of occasions and we’re actively pursuing every suggestion,” he said, adding he has spent thousands of dollars trying to resolve the problem.
“The things are a nuisance. They don’t carry any diseases and they don’t fly. In terms of a health risk, they’re pretty minimal.”
He said the hotel has hired a pest control company to heat rooms up to 160 °F (71 °C) for four hours at a time to kill the bed bugs. He also said the hotel uses other techniques such as wrapping mattresses in plastic and it’s used a dog to locate the bugs.
“We totally investigate each potential problem,” said Andrew. “First of all you rip the beds apart, look everywhere you can in the room for evidence and we call in our professionals to treat the room right away and then, of course, we go to the rooms on either side and rip them apart.
“We’re trying to encourage our professionals not to use serious poison so we’re using heat, steam and diatomaceous earth, which is an edible dust that dries [the bugs] out and kills them.”
According to AHS's website there are no other active closure orders for bed bugs in Jasper or the north zone at this time.
“Anecdotally, we do not recall any work or closure orders in relation to bed bugs in Jasper in recent years,” wrote Williamson in an email.
The issue was first brought to the attention of the Fitzhugh by Bruce Fulin, who said he was bitten more than 70 times after staying at the hotel on the evening of Sept. 18, a day after the executive order was issued.
Fulin said the bites didn’t show up until the next day when he was at a hotel in Calgary.
He said that hotel immediately quarantined his room, but found there was no evidence of bed bugs.
After learning the issue didn’t stem from the Calgary hotel, Fulin contacted the Astoria Hotel where he stayed the night before, but said the hotel denied they had bed bugs.
“The biggest concern I had was they were renting out these rooms every single night even when they had proof there was an infestation,” said Fulin, adding he contacted AHS on Sept. 21 and was forced to miss a day of work because of his injuries.
“Clearly they knew in advance,” he said. “The fact that the health board knew in advance before I got bitten and they still rented out the room to me and let me be bitten really shows a lack of action.”
Fulin said he hoped the hotel would issue an apology, notify people who may have come into contact with bed bugs and tell them what to do to protect themselves and their families when they return home. He also called on the hotel to put better policies and procedures in place to avoid the problem in the future.
As well as being critical of the hotel’s procedures, Fulin was also critical of AHS for reacting so slowly.
“If an order has been given and people are still being injured there is a serious problem,” he said.
Andrew rejected Fulin’s account of what happened and said he has reimbursed all of his guests who have had issues with bed bugs.
“Yes, we have had complaints,” said Andrew. “If we investigate it and we find out that it’s potentially legitimate then of course we get a hold of the customer, apologize, refund them and find out what they need in terms of mitigation.”
Paul Clarke [email protected]
