Relax - Guests vacate Brunei hotel as fire breaks out

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Above: Some of the evacuated guests when the fire broke.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - A kitchen fire at the Orchid Garden Hotel (OGH) in Anggerek Desa that started roughly an hour before the breaking of the fast yesterday forced the evacuation of hotel guests and patrons of its restaurant's sungkai buffet. No injuries were reported.

Newsmen reached the hotel after the fire had been extinguished, with police controlling entry into the building.

Many of the evacuated guests watched the scenes unfold from outside from a car park, where a number of fire engines were also parked.

Some of the guests left in such a hurry that they did not even have time to put on any footwear. The hotel's piercing alarm system could still be heard, ordering guests to evacuate as the smoke detectors were set off on the eighth and fifth floors.

The police finally gave the go signal for guests and reporters to enter the hotel just before 6pm.

A fireman (right) speaks to kitchen staff about a fire that started at a high pressure stove on the second floor kitchen of the OGH.

The fire started at the second floor kitchen of one of the hotel's restaurants. It was believed that a cook accidentally tipped over a wok filled with oil, which came into contact with the fire from a high pressure stove, igniting into an uncontrolled fire that burned through the stove's overhead exhaust fan and chute.

Smoke from the fire was said to have reached the eighth floor, where electricity had been cut, leaving the halls dark with only emergency lights illuminating the floor.

"It was a big fire... It happened around 5.15pm," the kitchen's executive chef told reporters.

He said that kitchen staff had been trained for such incidents and they managed to "slow down" the fire. With only 30 minutes to go before the time to break the fast, the executive chef said they would have to "rush and find a solution" to serve the guests their sungkai, noting they had another kitchen downstairs to help.

He said there were more than 300 reservations made for the restaurant that day.

Meanwhile, some of the guests voiced their displeasure over the incident. "Such a fuss over a small fire," one female foreign guest was heard saying.

Some of the guests and customers allowed back into the hotel when it was declared safe to enter the building.

Others had just arrived after it was announced that it was safe to enter.

"I saw the roads blocked (by the police)," said one man, who was with his partner to break their fast at OGH.

After learning of the fire, the couple said that they would still be taking their sungkai at the hotel.

"It's almost time (to break the fast) so we won't have enough time if we have to look for another place (to break the fast). Besides the bomba (Fire and Rescue Department) is leaving, so everything must be okay already," he said.

Guests vacate Brunei hotel as fire breaks out

By Ubaidillah Masli, The Brunei Times, ANN | Mon, Aug 15 2011

The fire started at the second floor kitchen of one of the hotel's restaurants.

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