Safety measures lacking?

Is it too much to hope that the recent fire at Hotel Perdana Wisata in Bandung, in which three people died, will serve to make the management of other public venues sit up and rethink their fire safety arrangements (if, indeed, any at all exist)?

Discos, for example, regularly pack in hundreds of people with no control at all over numbers. Often these places are at the top of buildings several stories high. Escape routes are frequently limited to a couple of lifts and, occasionally, an obscurely sign-posted set of stairs. It is not uncommon to find a locked door between the outside world and the bottom of a flight of "fire escape" stairs.

The fire at Hotel Perdana Wisata apparently started in the disco. It was probably avoidable and could have been a tragedy on a far greater scale had the fire started when the disco was still open, rather than at 4 a.m.

Let us hope that, in future, other potential disasters are not left to the hands of chance, but can be avoided due to preventative action taken by managers and owners.

ANNA BUNN

Bandung