Manila disco violated safety regulations
Manila disco violated safety regulations
MANILA (Agencies): Investigators found "flagrant violations" of Philippine building and safety laws at a popular Manila disco where 152 people died in a fire earlier this week, according to a preliminary report issued yesterday.
The report, by the Central Police District Command and the Bureau of Fire Protection, said the Ozone disco in Manila's Quezon City district had "flagrant violations ... which led to conditions that made the nightspot into a deadly fire trap".
"The Ozone disco had no fire exits. (It) had more than 300 customers and disco personnel inside a space originally intended, according to the building plans, for a maximum of 60 persons," the report, submitted to President Fidel Ramos, said.
The blaze early on Tuesday killed 152 people and left scores badly burned.
The report blamed five government officials for issuing the disco permits despite its violations of building safety laws.
The latest tragedy in the disaster-prone Philippines has created an uproar, with politicians and commentators demanding the government jail those responsible.
Meanwhile, police yesterday drew up criminal charges against the owners of the disco.
"They are now preparing the charges to be filed based on sworn statements, " from the owners and survivors of the Ozone disco," said Interior Department spokesman Jess Matubis.
Senior Superintendent Hercules Cataluna was to submit the statements yesterday to government prosecutors who will determine the charges filed against the owners and "others responsible," Matubis told AFP.
Eloisa Orolfo, a 16-year-old who suffered second and third- degree burns on 95 percent of her body died yesterday. She had been on a respirator since Tuesday's disaster.
"Her burns and inhalation injuries were too much for her to bear," Inocencio Oballo, a doctor at the East Avenue Medical Center said.
Nineteen-year-old Michael Miranda is still fighting for his life at the hospital on a respirator.
"We are all saddened. But we are doing all we can to save Michael," Oballo said.
In the Manila district of Santa Ana, residents were to hold a memorial mass yesterday for 19 teenagers from their community who died in the Philippines worst fire disaster in 50 years.
In the past two days, police and city officials have padlocked discos and nightclubs around Manila found to have violated safety and building codes.
Matubis said four night clubs in Quezon City, where the Ozone was, and three in the northern suburb of Valenzuela had been closed.
Press reports, quoting officials, say 18 nightclubs in the southern suburb of Pasay were closed because they fire exits, fire extinguishers and building and electrical permits.