KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA Investigators believe that faulty electrical cabling equipment may have been the cause of a hotel fire on the northern island of Penang that put nine people in the hospital. The blaze struck the 36-story Gurney Hotel as it was packed with guests for the Chinese New Year. The injured mostly had inhaled toxic fumes and were treated at a Penang hospital.
Preliminary findings suggest that the cause of the fire was a faulty cable riser, a piece of equipment that links a bundle of wires between switch boxes from one floor to another. Most of the hotel remains habitable. (1/25/01)
SOURCE:Wall Street Journal