Charleston - Huntington, West Virginia -- WOWK -- 13NewsCharleston Holiday Inn evacuated for carbon monoxide after 1 found dead

One person was found dead Tuesday morning at the Holiday Inn Express on Corridor G and investigators are linking to a carbon monoxide leak.

Sixteen people were taken to area hospitals, including four to St. Francis Hospital where one was listed in critical condition on a ventilator, two were listed in stable condition and one was being examined in the emergency room.

"They told me something happened on the fifth floor and said somebody passed away and one person unconscious," said Donald Harmon of Phenix City, Alabama.

Authorities later determined the person found dead was a construction worker from Rhode Island.  It's unclear where the other person in the room is from.  Crews had been staying at the hotel and got worried when the pair did not show up for work.

"They went to work.  A supervisor told them to go back and get these guys up and get them into work.  They came back couldn't get them awake when they knocked on the door.  The hotel staff ended up going there and unlocking the door for them and found them in that condition," said Bob Houck, Assistant Chief of the South Charleston Police Department.

The cause of the leak was a heater unit in the pool area had a leak that sent carbon monoxide throughout the Holiday Inn Express in South Charleston.  More than 30 guests were staying at the hotel.  As a precaution, they were told to get out of the building.

"I was in my room and they started banging on the door.  They were saying fire department.  I opened the door and they said I needed to evacuate that there were chemicals in the hotel," said Lisa Lawrence of Charlottesville, Virginia.

She admits it's unsettling feeling being told to evacuate your hotel.

"When somebody mentions chemicals, then you are scared because you are not sure what chemicals it is so you start thinking and getting paranoid," said Lawrence.

Late Tuesday afternoon guests were allowed to return to their rooms.  The firefighters planned to go through the hotel Tuesday evening to check carbon monoxide levels.