The prosecutor’s office in Odesa region has served a notice of suspicion to the chief engineer of the Tokyo Star hotel for violation of fire safety requirements, the press service of the office has reported.
“The prosecutor’s office of Odesa region, together with the Main Department of the National Police in the region, served a notice of suspicion to the chief engineer of the Tokyo Star hotel for violation of fire safety requirements, which entailed grave consequences (Part 2 of Article 270 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine),” the prosecutor’s office said on its website on Sept. 19.
According to the office, since 2009, together with the senior manager, the chief engineer was in fact responsible for the serviceability of the systems and hiring people who had to repair plumbing and electrical equipment. He supervised the work of these indicated persons.
Together with the senior manager, the chief engineer was actually responsible for ensuring fire safety at the hotel.
In their activities, these persons were directly subordinate to the owners of the hotel.
According to information about inspections by the State Emergency Service, the hotel’s activities have been conducted for years with fire safety violations, and in 2012, the operation of the hotel was stopped due to this.
During 2013-2018, the hotel management, together with the engineer and senior manager, systematically hindered the inspections by regulatory authorities.
“In July of this year, the hotel’s circuit breakers were repeatedly triggered at the hotel, but no measures were taken to identify the causes of the problems and eliminate them. As a result, people died in the hotel due to a tragic fire in August,” the office said.
As reported, in Odesa on the night of Saturday, August 17, there was a fire in the Tokyo Star Hotel, resulting in nine deaths and 10 injuries.
