Polish prosecutors have indicted four people over a fire in an escape room that killed five 15-year-old girls who had been celebrating a birthday.
The tragedy, which took place two years ago in the northern city of Koszalin, prompted nationwide fire safety checks and the shutdown of over a dozen other escape rooms, which are a type of adventure game in which players race to solve puzzles in order to find their way out of a locked space.
The Polish authorities have ordered the closure of 13 escape rooms after finding safety flaws following a mass inspection in the wake of last week's tragic death of five teenage girls in a fire https://t.co/xAT2CjbzJF
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 7, 2019
On Friday, prosecutors in Koszalin brought charges against four people operating the escape room for deliberately creating a fire hazard at the venue. They also accused an employee of “not doing anything” to save the five victims of the fire.
The blaze is believed to have been caused by a leaking gas cylinder inside a heater in the waiting room. Autopsies of the bodies showed that the five teenage girls, who were locked inside the escape room, died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Following the incident, the local fire service said there had been “a lot of negligence” at the venue, including heaters being placed too close to flammable material, makeshift electrical installations and no emergency evacuation route nor safety button in the room.
Earlier online reviews of the venue, which was set up in a private house, had mentioned the smell of gas from the cylinder, but local officials were not notified.
The venue’s owner – identified only as Miłosz S. under Polish law – was previously detained and charged with “deliberately creating the danger of a fire and unintentionally causing the death of people in a fire,” reported Onet.
The 30-year-old is also accused of not having informed local officials about the residential building being repurposed as a business, meaning it was not checked for safety.
The subsequent investigation has also yielded charges against Małgorzata W. (the owner’s grandmother, who had registered the business), Beata W. (the owner’s mother and business partner), and a 27-year-old employee, Radosław D. They could face up to eight years in prison for deliberately creating a fire hazard.
All four have denied any wrongdoing. Radosław D., who was seriously burned during the fire, claimed he did everything he could to save the victims.
In the wake of the tragedy, Poland’s interior ministry ordered an inspection of fire safety standards at more than 1,100 escape rooms in the country. The shutdown of 13 such venues was swiftly ordered, and the government urged people to report any shortcomings in safety standards.
Escape rooms had become highly popular in Poland. The five teenagers at the Koszalin venue were the first known deaths in an escape room.
Main image credit: Cezary Aszkiełowicz/Agencja Gazeta
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
