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National - Hotel fire is wakeup call for safety measures
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31-Jul-10 [10:35] |
PNA - Over two dozen people die in a fire in a Suleimaniya hotel Government officials order new safety measures and an investigation into the cause of the deadly hotel fire.
Hotel owners in Suleimaniya are outfitting their hotels with fire alarms, fire extinguishers, emergency lights, and exit signs after a hotel fire in Suleimaniya last Thursday night killed at least 28 people at the Soma hotel; 22 were injured.
The fire shocked the Kurdistan government and hotel owners into action. Eight governmental departments formed a special committee to discuss the safety measures needed. On Wednesday, they organized a seminar in Suleimaniya to inform hotel owners and the media about their findings.
The committee, which is responsible for the safety in hotels, compounds, and big buildings, made a list of nine safety precautions hotels should take. On their list are exit signs, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and alarms--all of which played a role in the hotel fire in Suleimaniya.
Three people tried to escape the fire by jumping from windows because of thick smoke in the corridors. Two of them survived, and according to one of them, the only emergency exit at the back of the hotel was locked. One of the guests died when he hit the parked car of one of the others guests, Mohamed Allawi from Baghdad. Allawi was able to save his wife and four children. He was aware of the smoke and got his family down in the elevator. Moments later, someone died in the same elevator as the electricity failed.
The list that was presented by the committee in Suleimaniya raises many questions with hotel owners. Every hotel got the same list, and therefore it was not clear to them how many fire extinguishers and fire alarms each of them should have. The hotels have 30 days to implement the safety measures mentioned on the list, and the committee will shut down hotels that don't adhere to the measures.
Khasraw Kamel, director of the Suleimaniya Municipality, said during the seminar: "It is the responsibility of everyone, the civilians, governmental institutions, but also the media, which have to report about these issues." To help hotel owners, municipality engineer Sadiq Mushir will be available for advice and instructions.
From this point forward, the municipality of Suleimaniya will only issue new licenses to hotels that apply the new safety measures and are working in accordance with the master plan of the city.
Hotel owners in Suleimaniya say they were not aware of the safety measures that should have been in place. Mohammed Faraj, owner of the Assos Hotel located opposite Soma Hotel, said: "To be honest we don't have sufficient safety precautions as we were never asked by licensing authorities." At the Assos Hotel, there are fire exits on the first and fourth floors, and there are fire extinguishers on every floor but they are concealed. Faraj pointed to the problem of the bad quality of electrical equipments that may cause short circuiting. He added that in Kurdistan, poor-quality materials are imported as there is no quality control.
The manager of a two-story motel near Soma Hotel said that in 2007 one of his hotels caught fire and it took the fire brigade an hour to reach them. He added that the authorities didn't take responsibility for that failure; there were no real casualties in the fire then. At his motel there are still no fire exits or any other fire safety measures.
In Erbil after the Soma fire, authorities started monitoring the safety measures in hotels in the Kurdish capital. Hotel owners were told within 15 days to take the necessary measures.
In the Suleimaniya fire, problems were increased by failure of the fire brigade to reach victims. Daban Qadir, a firefighter who was on duty that night and saved three lives, blamed it on a lack of equipment. He complained that their uniforms are made of poor-quality material and are not fire resistant. Their masks have no filters. If the brigade had enough bottles of oxygen they could have saved more lives. The fire department only has one mobile crane, which saved around 13 people. More cranes would have saved more lives.
President Massoud Barzani of the Kurdish Region bereaved the families of the victims and asked authorities to implement an investigation on the cause of the fire. He wants to take steps to prevent further accidents. Prime Minister Barham Salih ordered the review of safety measures in public buildings in all of Kurdistan.
Late night on Thursday July 15th a fire in the Soma hotel in Suleimaniya caused the death of 28 people, 22 people were injured. The fire erupted on the floor below the hotel in a furniture shop due to an electrical short circuit. Amongst the death were 14 foreigners and women and children. Some of the victims worked for the telecom company Asiacell, almost next to the hotel, and for oil companies working in the region, others came from the Iraqi southern cities with their families for a holiday or to visit a doctor.
It took the fire brigade at least 5 hours to control the fire. Their work was hampered by a lack of equipment and running water - the fire fighters had to wait for water to be delivered in trucks.
The Globe
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