Doha court overrules verdict on Villaggio fire
May 28, 2012 is one of the bleakest days in the history of Qatar. For, it was on this day that a fire broke out in a famous mall killing 19, 13 of them being children.
(Source:news.yahoo.com)
At around 11AM on the morning of the 28th, a fire alarm went off in the Italian themed mall, Villaggio. However, the fire alarm being not louder than a “doorbell” according to witnesses, was promptly ignored as there had been many a false alarm in the mall before.
It didn’t take much time for people to realize that a major fire had indeed broken out in the daycare “Gympanzee” trapping 13 children, 3 of them triplets from New Zealand and 4 staff inside.
It was later revealed that the blaze had been caused by an electric fault in the Nike store located close by.
Along with the 17 trapped in the nursery, two fire fighters were also killed.
Yesterday, according to The Peninsula, a higher court in Doha overruled the verdict given by a lower court which had held around five people responsible for the fire.
Also, the court of Appeals stated that the company that owns the mall is guilty of manslaughter and that families who lost their loved ones should be paid a blood money of QR200,000 each.
The 154 pages long verdict also noted that nobody would be going to jail.
However, the verdict also states that the company is free to file civil lawsuits against its tenants who it thinks were responsible for the unfortunate fire of Villaggio.
Although a couple of years have gone by since this tragedy, the families of the deceased still mourn over the loss of their loved ones.
(Source:Getty Images)
Most of them are of the opinion that negligence in part of the mall and its security and protocol system had been at fault.
The father of the triplets who died in the fire, later said that proper post -mortems were not carried on his children in spite of the “highly flammable paint and illegal flammable mouldings” in the mall. He also blamed a closed emergency exit at the day care center for the demise of his children.
Any thoughts?
(Cover image courtesy:JK)
KHAN:There is a vast difference between being the owner of a private house and a company that provides child care services. It is up to the owner to ensure that all precautions are taken to protect the children.
This is obvious and nobody to be blamed.
No body should be punished for a mistake that he did not commit.
You being the owner of your house, if there is a short circuit and people dies in your house, how can you be blamed for it? You were not even available at the site.
I see around the world people trying to punish the owners for each and everything.
For sure no owner will do this purposefully.
I can't understand why someone reported the comments from 'Wild Turkey' and 'britexpat'. Justice is not about money only or about finding guilties
His will ........... nobody can say a word ............. disasters make us sad but still humans has to accept the fate at the end ........ ............
I think we were pretty much expecting this.
This is a shame for the whole country!