Philippine President Gloria Arroyo yesterday ordered a thorough investigation of a Manila hotel blaze that killed 72 people and said those responsible would be prosecuted.
Investigators were rummaging through the gutted interior of the Manor Hotel in Manila's Quezon City suburb, trying to determine the cause of the blaze. Officials said the hotel had been warned last year about its poor safety standards.
Fire Chief Francisco Senot said there was a report from a witness that a hotel fire exit was padlocked shut.
PHOTO: AP
All the victims of the early Saturday blaze were apparently Filipinos, mostly from the provinces and in Manila for a weekend gathering organized by Christian evangelists.
The hotel is in a lower middle-class area, far from the capital's tourist districts.
"The president said she wants a complete investigation to find out who was responsible, that the culprits will have to be charged," Interior Secretary Jose Lina said.
Investigators said the two-hour fire which broke out before dawn on Saturday started in a karaoke bar on the third floor as a steady rain pelted the Manila area.
City officials had said that 75 people were killed but Senot said yesterday 72 bodies had been recovered and only one was charred, suggesting that the others died of asphyxiation.
About 50 people were injured.
It was the worst fire disaster in the country since March 1996, when 160 people, mostly teenagers, were killed in a discotheque, also in Quezon City.
Under the law, establishments are entitled to four notices of failure to comply with the safety code before they can be closed down, unless they rectify the flaws, fire officials said.
Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte told Manila's ANC television the hotel owner had contacted authorities but had yet to appear, presumably because "he is talking to his lawyers."
Belmonte said relevant officials would be punished if it was discovered that safety rules were ignored or poorly enforced.
"We have to pinpoint responsibility. ... We mean business. I hope heads will roll," Belmonte said.
Manila newspapers said the hotel had violated some building codes.
"The bodies told the story," said the Philippine Daily Star. "They weren't charred; most of them weren't touched by flames at all. Instead, the victims had suffocated to death, trapped in a building with inadequate fire safety facilities."
"There are many other buildings in Metro Manila that blatantly violate fire safety rules. How many more horrific fires will it take before officials come down hard on the owners of these death traps?"
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
SAFETY FIRST: Double the number of police were deployed at the Taipei Marathon, while other cities released plans to bolster public event safety Authorities across Taiwan have stepped up security measures ahead of Christmas and New Year events, following a knife and smoke bomb attack in Taipei on Friday that left four people dead and 11 injured. In a bid to prevent potential copycat incidents, police deployments have been expanded for large gatherings, transport hubs, and other crowded public spaces, according to official statements from police and city authorities. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city has “comprehensively raised security readiness” in crowded areas, increased police deployments with armed officers, and intensified patrols during weekends and nighttime hours. For large-scale events, security checkpoints and explosives
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
PUBLIC SAFETY: The premier said that security would be tightened in transport hubs, while President Lai commended the public for their bravery The government is to deploy more police, including rapid response units, in crowded public areas to ensure a swift response to any threats, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after a knife attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei the previous day. Lai made the remarks following a briefing by the National Police Agency on the progress of the investigation, saying that the attack underscored the importance of cooperation in public security between the central and local governments. The attack unfolded in the early evening on Friday around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later near the Taipei MRT’s Zhongshan
RSS