Asian hotels seek better fire safety

Press, 6 March 1985, Page 41

Asian hotels seek better fire safety

NZPA-Reuter Manila Most Asian countries say their fire regulations are sufficient to prevent a catastrophe like the hotel fire in Manila which killed at least 27 people recently. However, a survey by Reuter correspondents in Asian nations showed that some countries are worried about their regulations and are improving them to prevent serious death tolls in the event of fires. In Sri Lanka, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Tourist Hotels Association, which has a membership of 150 hotels, said he doubted whether all, of them conformed to safety standards. “Most five-star hotels are well . covered but other smaller city hotels are found wanting in standards,” he said. But Sri Lanka’s chief fire officer, K. M. de Silva, said all hotels had to conform to fire standards and he was satisfied that they did. In Indonesia, a survey by the Jakarta municipal authorities late last year showed that most of the city’s high-rise buildings were not adequately equipped with fire safety measures. A city spokesman said that since the survey, owners of tall buildings and hotels had been told to increase their fire safety

measures. In Japan, where 32 people were killed in a hotel fire in 1982, the National Fire Defence Agency said that regulations were tightened 15 years ago and all hotels built since then must conform. “The major weak point in Japan is the large number of small wooden Ryokan (Japan-style inns),” said an agency spokesman. In South Korea, where 165 people died in a Seoul hotel fire on Christmas Day in 1971, the Government established the Korean Fire Protection Association to try to prevent a recurrence.

Since 1973 it has been mandatory for all hotels to be inspected annually by some of the 500 fire prevention specialists of the association. China is in the middle of an unprecedented tourist boom (12 million tourists last year, a third up on 1983) and has embarked on a crash programme to build hotels. One foreign manager of a big Peking hotel said the new buildings generally conformed with international safety standards and the Chinese authorities made frequent fire safety inspections. But at the local level there can be problems.

One recent visitor to the southern resort city of Xia-

men said it took the threat of a mass walkout by guests to persuade the manager of the overseas Chinese hotel there to unlock the fire escape doors, which were shut to stop local Chinese getting in. In Thailand hotels are required to have fire detection and fighting systems. “We have installed our own fire fighting system because the Bangkok fire brigade cannot go higher than the eighth floor,” said the manager of the Oriental Hotel. Fire prevention checks have been increased in Taiwan since last year when 19 people died in a hotel fire. A fire department official 'said regular checks were made to ensure Government regulations were obeyed. “The rules are basically designed to avoid fire traps,” he said. Singapore has more than 60 high-rise hotels but has never had a major fire disaster. Lim Beng Lock, director of the Singapore Fire Service, told Reuters that “Singapore fire standards are way above those of the Philippines and most other Asian nations. “However, in a crisis we have contingency plans for high-rise fire rescue, including the use of Army helicopters,” he said.