Eleven killed in Pakistan hotel fire
City mayor says it has no fire alarm or emergency exits
KARACHI, PAKISTAN // A predawn fire at a Karachi hotel yesterday killed 11 people and wounded 75, with guests jumping from windows and using knotted bedsheets to escape.
Many guests at the four- star Regent Plaza were trapped in their rooms because of a lack of fire alarms and emergency exits.
“The hotel had no fire safety system and no fire exit . They had no fire alarm,” said Karachi mayor Waseem Akhtar. “We have received 11 dead bodies and 75 injured . Four women were among the dead,” said Semi Jamali, a doctor at Karachi’s Jinnah hospital.
Many of the victims had suffered from smoke inhalation or suffocated, Dr Jamali said, but others had cuts or fractures suffered as they leapt from the hotel’s upper floors to safety.
“We tied the bed sheets together to make a rope, and used that to climb down from the fourth floor,” said Khalid Mehmood, speaking from his hospital bed. “We also had to jump midway, as the bed sheets weren’t long enough.” A man standing at a balcony kept waving for help but the eight-storey hotel did not have any means of reaching him, another survivor, Hamid Ali, said.
“For four to five hours everybody was looking helpless, crying for help and nobody was there to help them,” said another of the injured, Muhammad Saeed, who was also being treated at the hospital
Two Pakistani international cricketers were staying at the hotel – Sohaib Maqsood and Hammad Azam – although they were not believed to be injured.
Police senior superintendent Saqib Memon said the cause of the fire was not clear and an investigation had been launched. The English- language Dawn newspaper reported that the blaze broke out in a ground floor kitchen of the 400- room hotel.
Building fires in Pakistan are often caused by faulty wiring or electrical short circuits.