Sharon Hill: When the fire began I was on the fourth
floor. I smelled the smoke, panicked and ran to the staircase. I was already in
flames. I looked for a fire escape but there wasn’t one. So I climbed through a
window and down a drainpipe. I was lucky to escape. The place was a death trap.
No sooner had I come out of the drainpipe than I heard the fire engines
whistling in. It was too late. The hotel was completely on fire then. I saw some
guests jumping out of the hotel windows. People were crying and shouting. That
was a terrible scene. Tom Bell: There was a complete
lack of safety precautions. I was shocked. The building should never been used
as a hotel. There were no tire escapes or emergency exits. None of the
regulations were adhered to. The only staircase was made of wood. There wasn’t
even an alarm system. I’ve never seen such a badly designed building. The hotel
management has been negligent, as my assessment makes this quite clear. The
hotel was without any form of lire-prevention. It wouldn’t have cost much to
install a lire escape, an alarm system and a few fire extinguishers. If they had
taken these precautions this tragedy wouldn’t have happened. Their negligence
has resulted in the deaths of 31 people and great suffering to hundred more.
They will be held responsible and will have to pay compensation to all those
people. Frieda Corbett: I certainly do not accept
responsibility. I did not start the lire. I suggest you find the idiot who left
a lighted cigarette on his bed and ask him why he did such a daft thing. This
hotel was built with the knowledge and approval of the City Planning Department.
If they thought the design was bad they should have told us then. Making safety
regulations is their job, not mine. Harry Bright: This
hotel was built 20 year ago. Safety standards were much lower then. It should
have been inspected — it should have been closed — five years ago when the
regulations were tightened, but it wasn’t. Our office deals mainly with new
buildings and we have neither the time to inspect, nor the right to close unsafe
old buildings like this one. I hope that as a result of the tragedy, the
Government will decide to create special lire department, with powers to close
all hotels, theatres and other public buildings which don’t satisfy the latest
safety standards. It must be done soon. Otherwise, I will resign. James
Hurst: Who is responsible for this tragedy The idiot who
started the fire The hotel owners who were too stingy to pay for some
alterations which would have prevented the tragedy The city office which
allowed the hotel to be built in the first place and failed to inspect it
afterwards They must all share the responsibility. But what really worries me
is that there are probably thousands of other hotels just like this one. The
Government must make strict new safety regulations and make sure that every
hotel in the country is inspected. Hotel owners who deliberately ignore the
regulations should be punished severely. Now match each of
the persons (61 to 65) to the appropriate statement. Note: there
are two extra statements.
Statements [A] The hotel guest
who started fire should be held responsible, not me, the manageress. [B] As
the head of The City Planning Department, I will resign as a result of the
tragedy. [C] We should urge the Government to take more strict measures to
prevent things like this from happening again. [D] Fire engines should come
as early as possible to save people in fire. [E] A new department should be
set up and should be given more power so that it can deal with such
problems. [F] As the chief of the local fire brigade, I inspected the hotel
and the bad design of the building without any safety precaution shocked
me. [G] I was one of the guests in file hotel who were lucky enough to
survive. James Hurst