Drunken guest blamed for fire

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 8

Drunken guest blamed for fire

NZ-PA-AFP Berlin A fire that swept through three West Berlin hotels leaving at least four people dead, including a five-year-old girl, was started deliberately by a drunken guest, the police said yesterday. Another five people were missing after the blaze, which gutted two buildings housing three hotels in the centre of West Berlin on Sunday, injuring 40 people. The police said the fire, the city’s worst since World War 11, was started by a hotel guest after a heavy drinking bout. They identified the guest only as Hans-Werner P, aged 45. He was arrested yesterday and told the police he had deliberately set fire to a tablecloth in the dining room of the Central Hotel. Alone in the dining room, he was unable to bring the fire under control and fled without raising the alarm. By the time fire services were alerted, the blaze had spread to the adjoining Holland Hotel and an Am Kurfuerstendamm boardinghouse, as well as a neighbouring block of flats and offices. The upper floors of the hotels, where Japanese and Soviet tourists were known to be staying, were reduced to debris.