Delays in obtaining fire-safety equipment at the renovated Hotel Westward Ho will prevent senior citizens from starting to move into the apartments today as planned, the city fire marshal said.

Fire Marshal Harry Beck said the Fire Department ordered the hotel owners to install a fire-alarm system in the hotel's J building, a four-story portion of the downtown landmark structure that has been redesigned as a private residence for the elderly.

About a dozen people were scheduled to move in today, but it may be about a month before the hotel is ready to be occupied.

"They (the hotel management) asked for a variance to allow people to move into the hotel because they could not obtain the equipment, but we denied it," Beck said. "We're not going to allow anyone to move in there until it is completely safe."

William G. McFadzean of Minneapolis, a co-owner of the 52 year old hotel at Central Avenue and Fillmore, said his partners are "happy to install" the system, but it will create delays.

McFadzean said the alarm was not in the original plan approved by the Fire Department but came up on a recent inspection.

Beck, however, said the alarm system is not a new requirement.

McFadzean said the hotel may be ready for occupancy by early February. Rent will range from $350 to $490 per month for low-income elderly and handicapped people and will be subsidized by the federal government.

Hotel architect Jim Ramsey said he now expects the building to be inspected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development by Jan. 15, which would make occupancy possible in February.

HUD authorized the sale of $11.9 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finance the purchase and conversion of the hotel by Westward Ho Associates, a partnership of investors from Minneapolis and Providence, R.I.

Ramsey said the building already has passed city electrical and plumbing inspections.

The owners originally predicted that 79 of the 290 apartments would be finished last November, but construction delays pushed the date to January.

"This is not like new construction," Ramsey said. "Every time you turn around, you need new chimneys or gas lines."

He said the remaining 211 apartments are expected to be ready for occupancy by late summer.

McFadzean said he is "sorry about the delay."

"We feel very bad because some of these people have been living from month to month and have been giving their notice where they are living," he said.