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Philippine President Orders Aid to Hotel Fire Victims
Philippine president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered government agencies Saturday afternoon to provide all possible assistance to the victims of a hotel fire that claimed over 70 lives.
Arroyo issued the order during her visit to a hospital in Quezon City, Metro Manila, and the municipal police headquarters where most of the dead were brought.
At least 75 people died, mostly of suffocation, in the fire that hit the six-story Manor Hotel in Quezon before dawn Saturday, the country's deadliest fire since 1996 when a blaze at the Manila Ozone discotheque killed 160 people.
Police said 57 people, most of whom sustained third-degree burns, were in hospital.
The president also directed Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina to conduct an immediate probe into the cause of the fatal fire, and ordered national police chief Leandro Mendoza to locate the owner of the hotel who was reportedly missing.
Lina had earlier given the Bureau of Fire Protection 48 hours to conduct a probe and file necessary charges against the owner of the hotel for apparent building code violations.
Many of the hotel's fire exits were blocked or locked and the hallways and rooms apparently were not equipped with fire alarms or emergency lights, officials said.
TV live footage showed that windows of the hotel were sealed by iron barriers and firefighters had to saw through the bars to get trapped persons out.
The hotel was reportedly given a warning to improve its fire safety measures about three months ago.
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