Safety measures lacking?

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