Cigarette butt may have caused hotel inferno

Cigarette butt may have caused hotel inferno

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Singapore

A smoldering cigarette butt may have caused a hotel fire which claimed four lives on the island of Batam, Riau province, but police said they were still investigating on Monday.

Staff at the nine-story Harmoni Hotel said they believed the early Sunday blaze which also injured at least 22 people may have been sparked by a cigarette butt dropped on a carpet.

"At first we were really scared because we all thought it might be another bomb," said Singaporean guest S. Murthi, referring to last month's blast outside the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta.

The ninth floor of the four-star Hotel Harmoni was made up of function rooms, one of which was used by wedding guests before the fire broke out, police said.

Some of the terrified guests leaped from the top floors of the burning building.

"They jumped out from the windows because they were trying to get away from the fire," said Barelang Police chief Sr. Comr, Suhartono, referring to three of the victims.

The fire, which started around 3 a.m., left one Singaporean and three Indonesians dead. Among the wounded Singaporeans was Harold Quah, 46, the senior art director of Nexus-Asatsu Advertising.

The Indonesians who died were among those who leaped from the hotel's windows, police said.

Among them were two men believed to be politicians from the island of Pulau Tujah and a woman.

A Polish national was among the 14 injured.

Kuldip Singh Minhas, a 38-year-old Indian national who was in his fifth-floor room, said he decided to climb down because his room was above the swimming pool.

"I opened the door and saw smoke creeping from both ends of the corridor, so I decided not to take the stairs," he told The Straits Times.

Tying his bed sheets to a balcony railing, he climbed down the makeshift rope, the report said. The sheet gave way halfway down, but Kuldip escaped with minor cuts.

A nurse at the Harapan Bunda hospital in Batam said most of those admitted were not seriously injured.

There were around 200 guests in the Harmoni Hotel in the center of Batam's main town Nagoya. It is owned by former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie.

Singapore's Foreign Ministry said the injured Singaporeans were treated and discharged, and have returned home.

Batam, 20 kilometers south of Singapore, has attracted large amounts of foreign investment, mostly from the city-state.