Cigarette may have killed 25

Press, 1 October 1979, Page 8

Cigarette may have killed 25

NZPA-Reuter Vienna c A smouldering cigarette'll end probably touched off ig Austria’s worst fire since jf World War 2, experts have in said in Vienna. ui They said this was the'J' most likely cause of the [ blaze that killed 25 people v as it swept through Vienna’s * Am Augarten Hotel at dawn A on Friday. The hotel wasT crowded with foreign tour-l c ists. A Only 14 victims had been 1 positively identified 30 hours . after the fire began — six Yugoslavs, four Austrians. three Americans, and a Swiss bus driver. 1 The police put the death toll at 26, but later revised [ r the count to 25. ; t Officials said identification ; < had proved unusually diffi-ir

cult because all hotel) records and personal documents had been destroyed as guests fled through smokefilled corridors in their) night-clothes. Most of the; unidentified victims were be-1 lieved to be Yugoslavs. Fire experts said early investigations pointed to the fire having started in a; wastepaper basket in the hotel’s reception area. The concierge, a student who worked at night to pay for his studies, died in the fire. Hospital authorities said most victims had died from poisonous fumes given off by quick-burning synthetic carpets and plastic floor covers. This led to immediate demands by civic leaders for tighter controls on the use of flammable carpets and; other materials in hotels.