Owner detained amid claims that inspections had highlighted fire hazards long before Saturday’s blaze
The owner of a spa hotel in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin where a fire killed 19 people and injured 23 on Saturday has been detained by police, as it was reported by state media that the building had failed at least five fire safety inspections in the past two years.
The Harbin public security bureau said via its official social media account that it was questioning the legal representative of the owner of Beilong Hot Spring hotel on suspicion of negligence regarding the fire, which started at about 4:30am on Saturday and was extinguished at 7:50am, state media reported.
The blaze killed 18 at the scene, while 24 people were taken to hospital, of whom one later died.
Formerly a private recreational facility of a state-owned bank, with complex, maze-like passageways, the 200-plus-room hotel had been a known fire safety risk for years, media reports of its alleged fire safety record suggested.
It was found unsafe by the city’s fire department in a fire hazard inspection in 2016, Thepaper.cn reported on Sunday, with no exit signs or fire extinguishers in some areas.
The hotel was ordered to suspend its operations until changes had been made, Thepaper reported, adding that it was unclear whether the hotel had complied.
According to Legal Daily, Harbin fire authorities had conducted six further inspections of the hotel since last December, four of which it failed to pass. By law, the authorities have the power to suspend a business in such circumstances.
