Date | December 11, 2017 |
---|---|
Venue | Leogrand Hotel & Casino |
Location | Batumi, Adjara, Georgia |
Coordinates | 41°38′44.8″N41°38′55.9″E / 41.645778°N 41.648861°E |
Type | Fire |
Deaths | 11 |
Non-fatal injuries | 21 |
A fire in the Leogrand Hotel & Casino in Georgia's Black Sea city of Batumi occurred on the night of 24 to 25 November 2017. It left 11 people dead. After the incident, the hotel rebranded itself as Welmond. [1]
The fire in the 22-storey five-star hotel broke out around 20:00 local time, with many strongly suspecting the starting location at the spa center. [2] Thirteen rescue and firefighting vehicles and approximately 100 firefighters were deployed and more than 100 people were evacuated. [3] The hotel was due to host the Miss Georgia beauty pageant. None of the 20 contestants were injured. [4] The owner and executive producer of the pageant told reporters that the contestants were in the middle of rehearsal when they were told to evacuate to a terrace. [2]
Eleven people, ten Georgian nationals and one Iranian national, died, all from inhaling fumes. Eight of the victims were found trapped in an elevator, one in a swimming pool, and two were discovered in the hotel gym. [5] Twenty-one people were hospitalized [6] of which were a firefighter, four Turkish nationals and one Israeli national. [7]
Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili vowed to punish and identify all those that were responsible for the fire, with Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia backing his calls for an investigation into the breach of fire-safety norms. [5]
Police said an investigation into possible breaches of fire safety regulations was launched. [8] [9] In 2018 the Georgian Prosecutor's Office requested the detention of a Turkish citizen who was the technical manager of the hotel, and a Georgian citizen who was a staff manager of the technical storage team. [10] Investigators determined that easily inflammable materials which had been placed in the technical storage room helped intensify the fire and caused strong smoke. The hotel was also not equipped with automatic fire and smoke alarm systems. [10]
The two detained men, the Turkish manager and the Georgian storage staff member, were sentenced by the Batumi City Court to five years and six months and two years in prison, respectively. [1]
The Government of Georgia declared a national day of mourning for November 27 for all of the victims of the fire. [7] The Catholicos Patriach of All Georgia Ilia II expressed his sympathy for the tragedy and offered his condolences to the victims and their families from the Georgian Church at a service he delivered at the hotel. [11]
Shortly after the fire, a new law was prepared by the Emergency Management Service for parliament that increased fines imposed on fire safety rules by ten times. Also noted for the creation of the bill was multiple previous shopping center fires in Tbilisi. [12]
Batumi is the second-largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest, 20 kilometers north of the border with Turkey. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of the Caucasus. Much of Batumi's economy revolves around tourism and gambling, but the city is also an important seaport and includes industries like shipbuilding, food processing and light manufacturing. Since 2010, Batumi has been transformed by the construction of modern high-rise buildings, as well as the restoration of classical 19th-century edifices lining its historic Old Town.
Adjara or Achara, officially known as the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, is a political-administrative region of Georgia. Located in the country's southwestern corner, Adjara lies on the coast of the Black Sea near the foot of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, north of Turkey. It is an important tourist destination and includes Georgia's second most populous city of Batumi as its capital. About 350,000 people live on its 2,880 km2 (1,110 sq mi).
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