Fire Marshal visit leads to temporary closure of Brunswick County business
BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A fitness business in northern Brunswick County is temporarily closed after a visit from the county fire marshal.
Brandon Cala, owner of Eternal Fitness, said the marshal arrived unannounced at the Ploof Road Business Center in Leland.
“Fire marshal came in, we didn’t know anything about it. They just kind of told us what was going on and they were like, ‘Hey, we have bad news…’” Cala said.
Cala said the fire marshal pointed to concerns involving permitting, occupancy limits and a door that was supposed to pull open instead of push.
He said that the fire marshal mentioned an ordinance regarding how the buildings are zoned.
“We have panic buttons, we have all everything up to code — everything based on safety — and then we are just with no warning told like, ‘Hey, something’s not right and it’s not your fault, but you are gonna face the repercussions of it.’ It’s tough,” Cala said.
Cala also said he believes two neighboring businesses in the same complex were affected.
“Bridge Dance Arts and Mission Fit — I heard they were also affected with this. I’m sure they are in a similar predicament and situation and just trying to figure it out,” he said.
Eternal Fitness has about 800 members and roughly 13 employees, according to Cala.
“It’s a little disheartening because we are a small local business, so it’s tough to stop everything. We have 800 members, so that’s 800 people that are going to be affected. We have trainers, we have about 13 or so employees, so all their jobs halted and everything, so it’s tough,” he said.
Cala said he has been told it could take days or weeks to reopen. If the process takes too long, he may temporarily move to a different location.
A Brunswick County spokesperson said:
“It was discovered during a site visit today that the business was located in a unit approved only for Storage Use purposes. Due to the nature of the business, it would need to be approved for an appropriate Assembly Occupancy Use, which ensures that the proper and necessary life-safety requirements are in place (e.g., adequate emergency exits, panic hardware of doors, emergency lights, etc.).
The owners and tenants were informed about how to submit a change of use application and that temporary occupancy approval could be obtained once the necessary life-safety features are in place, allowing them to reoccupy the space while the owner(s) worked on completing the minimum code requirements related to the change of use over a 30 to 90-day time frame.”
WWAY has reached out to Brunswick County for more information about how many businesses were visited and why.
