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The scene of the blaze in Royal College Street |
FIRE DEATHS: SAUNA BOSS GOES AWOL
Inquest goes ahead while search for managers continues
MANAGERS of a massage parlour which burned down killing two people have vanished.
Fire investigators told a coroner’s inquest on Tuesday that a police hunt has drawn a blank.
The inquiry into the deaths of masseuse Perihan Djelal, 34, and housing officer Daniel Eamonn O’Halloran, 44, went ahead in the absence of potential key witnesses, even though they could hold crucial information about life at the ‘A Touch of Class’ sauna in Royal College Street, Camden Town.
Both died from smoke inhalation after they were trapped in the basement of the building during the horrific inferno in March.
The blaze was started after a candle – used because a light fitting was broken – set a towel alight in the timber-walled sauna. Five months later, the building is still a burned out shell.
The inquest heard how safety problems at the sauna including the absence of smoke detectors and an illegally locked fire escape door, meant that the pair had little chance of escape.
St Pancras coroner Dr Andrew Reid, whose judicial status is the equivalent of a high court judge, has the power to call any witness or postpone hearings if he sees fit.
But, on this occasion, he allowed the proceedings to conclude without any cross-examination of the management from the sauna and within three hours had reached a verdict of accidental death in both cases.
Investigators told the court the sauna’s bosses had “disappeared”.
Ms Djelal’s daughter, Leah Halil, who listened to evidence from the front of the court, called for those responsible for safety at the sauna to speak to detectives.
She said afterwards: “Come forward. It’s not fair on other people if (the person responsible) gets away with this. People want answers and he should face up to his responsibility. He’s letting other people suffer and deal with his mistakes. It’s not fair – he didn’t lose anyone, he just lost bricks and a building.”
Ms Djelal lived in Haringey and had been working at the sauna for two months, while Mr O’Halloran, from Dulwich, was one of her clients. Fellow masseuse Marina Chebotar paid tribute to Ms Djelal outside the court.
She said: “She was always joking, and if anyone had a problem she would try to help. She was a good person.”
Fire expert Nicholas Carey, watch manager on the night of the fire, admitted their investigation had hit a brick wall – conceding the person responsible for fire safety at the sauna had “disappeared”.
At one stage during the inquest Dr Reid asked Mr Carey if the fire brigade had the power to close the sauna down after it lost its licence in 2005. Mr Carey said: “Not that I’m aware.”
He added: “We are the enforcement authority, we have the power to prosecute, so we have been trying to find the responsible person – but effectively everyone’s disappeared. Nobody’s ever come back (to the building). In our opinion had that (fire escape) door not been locked people could have escaped.”
The terrifying details of the inferno were publicly described for the first time at the inquest.
Ms Chebotar told how panic set in as smoke flooded the basement. She said: “I started choking because there was smoke everywhere... we were very confused... we didn’t know what to do because Layla (Ms Djelal) was still in there with a client but there was fire. Then we saw the stairs. I turned my head to shout ‘let’s run away from here’ – I noticed Layla open the door but then she shut it. After that I ran upstairs and the fire engulfed the whole place. We ran into the streets and seconds later the fire was rushing behind us. There was no other solution, we had to run away.”
In March 2005, Camden Council refused to renew the sauna’s licence but it did not close.
The fire deaths have raised questions over why the parlour wasn’t closed down and which authority – the council, the police or the fire brigade – should have been responsible for checking on safety.
Former Camden Town Councillor Gerry Harrison said Camden should “hang its head in shame” for not heeding complaints about the sauna. He said: “We councillors often hear from residents that something is ‘an accident waiting to happen’ – and this certainly was. Camden Council should hang its head in shame. This place was unlicensed for quite some time.”
Following a change in the law in October, the onus to check fire safety transferred from the fire brigade to the owner or manager of a business, effectively the person that police and fire officers have so far been unable to trace in this case.
Dr Reid said: “It’s not for me to determine criminal liability. Police have shown there was no evidence the fire was started maliciously. I accept it was caused by candles.” |
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