The Astoria Red Lion Inn will be closed indefinitely while engineers evaluate the building’s structural support system, hotel officials announced Dec. 4.

The action follows on the heels of an incident Nov. 5 in which a balcony connected to one of the hotel’s riverside rooms collapsed sending six people plummeting into the Columbia River. None of the six, who landed in a mooring basin, was reported injured. Although they were dunked into the chilly waters up to their chests, all managed to swim to safety.

Initial reports focused on failure of the deck’s wood support as the apparent cause of the accident.

Patricia Stryker, a consultant for Red Lion Inn, told Coast River Business Journal that after receiving a preliminary engineering report of the building’s support structure, hotel management decided to close the hotel on Dec. 3. At the time, the hotel had 29 guests registered. The hotel was able to find alternative accommodations for all of its guests, she said.

In addition, the closure resulted in the indefinite furlough of 24 employees, she said. All will receive severance packages, she added.

Stryker told CRBJ the hotel will be closed at least until March 2010, when an engineering evaluation on the structure’s support system is expected to be completed. However, she added that the extent of the closure could be longer, depending on what actions the engineers recommend.

“We don’t know how extensive the repairs might be,” Stryker said. “We will be closed until we make that determination.”

By March, she said hotel officials should have enough information to make a decision on how to proceed with any necessary repairs.

She said the hotel has been working closely with the City of Astoria, which has authority over determining the building’s structural soundness, and the Port of Astoria, which owns the land on which the hotel is built.

At the time of the lodging facility’s closure, the 124-room hotel, which is located at 400 Industry St., had only about 40 rooms available for guests, she said.

Meanwhile, the Port of Astoria has hired Portland firm Peterson Structural Engineers, Inc. to evaluate the condition of those areas of the Red Lion complex that are the port’s responsibility – including the vacant restaurant facility which engineers said is structurally unsound.

The engineers recommended in December that the port stabilize the restaurant building temporarily and make plans to eventually tear it down.