MAKKAH, 18 May 2003 — Brig. Ahmad ibn Saad Al-Thubaity, director-general of Civil Defense in the Makkah region, told Al-Watan newspaper that an investigation is still under way into the cause of Thursday’s hotel fire which killed 14 people, including eight expatriate workers.
“The dead included four Saudis, a Syrian woman and an unidentified child,” he told the newspaper.
“The fire also injured 43 people but most of them left hospital after receiving first aid.”
There were 270 pilgrims at the hotel at the time of the accident.
Makkah Governor Prince Abdul Majeed has said that those who caused the fire would be punished.
“They will be asked to pay the cost of treating the injured and the blood money of SR120,000 to each of the victims’ families,” the governor said.
Okaz newspaper identified the dead as Shahir Ahmad Sharif, Farraj Muhammad Ahmad, Abdullah Wajeed Al-Hindi, Jalundhir Khan Ishaq, Saeed Ibrahim Allam, Abdul Rahman Al-Sahmi, Abdullah Hamad Al-Muneef, Faryal Muhammad Hussein, Anas Al-Aisheen, Hussein Muhammad Qaid, Abdul Fattah Shakir Abdul Fattah and Yazeed Saleh.
The paper said that those still hospitalized included Ali Al-Zahrani, Abdul Rahim Abid Ilyas, Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Shadli, Abdullah Eid Al-Matrafi, Dhaifallah Al-Oqaibi, Asim Sheikh, Yousuf Fatehan Al-Maliki, Zar Gul Malik, Suleiman Humaid Al-Talehi, Abdullah Mahya Al-Otaibi, Yousuf Ahmad Hussein, Mansour Al-Zahrani, and Fareed Ali Al-Badrawi.
Thursday’s fire started in a mattress storeroom on the second floor of the 14-story building which housed the pilgrims before it spread to the upper floors, suffocating a number of people.
