Victims were trapped in their rooms by barred windows
The Philippines Government has launched an inquiry into a fire which swept through a Manila hotel on Saturday morning, killing 75 people who were trapped inside.
The victims, believed to be Filipinos attending a conference of a Christian sect, were asphyxiated in their rooms as barred windows and sealed fire escapes made escape from the pre-dawn blaze virtually impossible.
The fire, at the Manor Hotel in the Quezon City suburb of Manila, took two hours to extinguish and is thought to have started in the hotel restaurant.
It is the worst fire disaster to strike the Philippines since a blaze in a Manila discotheque claimed 160, mainly teenage, victims in 1996.
Trapped behind bars
Many of the bodies were found in bathrooms where the victims had apparently tried to douse themselves with water as the building filled up with thick smoke and temperatures soared.
One victim had even submerged his head in a toilet bowl, said a fire-fighter.
The windows of most rooms were covered with bars designed to deter thieves but which severely hindered the rescue mission.
"Without a doubt there would have been more people rescued if there had been no iron grilles on the windows," said Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte.
"There were people hanging out of the windows crying out to be rescued."
Fire-fighters used metal grinders to cut through grilles on the windows and managed to save 18 people
Locked fire escapes
Two people attempted to jump off the building but were stopped and rescued, while two others jumped and survived, including one who landed on concrete.
Survivors said that some of the fire escapes were locked and that there was little in the way of emergency lightening.
There were no fire alarms in the hotel, officials said, and a security guard had tried to awaken guests by firing a gun outside the hotel.
Belmonte said 62 people died inside the hotel and 13 in hospital.
There were 172 people staying in the hotel, the majority attending the two-day "Dawn Flower Destiny Conference" for born-again Christians.
Escape
Eugene Schwebler, a 60-year-old US citizen, told the Associated Press that 160 people from the missionary group were staying at the hotel.
"I don't know how many came out. The lights went out and we heard people screaming."
He said he tried to leave through the corridor but the heat forced him back to his room.
He said he then pulled the air conditioner out of the wall to give him access to the fire escape.
The BBC's John Maclean in Manila said the fire has sparked fresh anger about the apparent laxity of safety standards in public buildings.
The secretary for the interior ministry, Jose Line, said his office would be looking into reports that just two months ago the hotel was found to have sub-standard safety standards and was given a month to rectify the problem.
He said charges would be pressed if criminal
neglect was established.
-- Anonymous, August 18, 2001