Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The committee that was that has been probing the deadly fire incident that erupted in Regent Plaza Hotel on December 4 has submitted its initial report to Chief Minister (CM) Sindh Murad Ali Shah on Thursday.

At least 12 people lost their lives and 75 others had received injuries when the four-star hotel caught fire early Monday morning. The report claimed that the hotel administration and the civil defense had shown negligence and both are equally responsible for the incident.

“Suitable fire-prevention equipment was not present in the hotel whereas the staff was also not trained to extinguish the blaze,” stated the report, adding that ill safety measures at the hotel for dealing with emergency incidents such as fire were mainly responsible for the losses. Most of the hotels in country’s biggest city of Karachi lack proper fire safety measurements and there is no training of the staff members also.

There were no trained personnel at the hotel for extinguishing the fire and all of the emergency exits were closed, police sources said in the report. “The emergency routes of the hotel were also shut and hotel staff ran away from the site instead of putting out the fire,” claimed the report.

The Department of Civil has also been found guilty in the incident. “The Civil Defense Department’s team members only visited the hotel for routine survey in May 2015 and they issued a certificate, but they didn’t visit it again to check the safety measures,” said the report.

However; the hotel administration had not upgraded the fire-prevention equipment during the last one and a half year. In view of the findings, the home secretary has held the hotel administration and the Civil Defense Department responsible for the incident.