The Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland — The homeless shelter where 22 people died in a fire in northwest Poland had building code violations, the state-run auditing office said Tuesday, and the government ordered safety inspections at temporary lodgings across the country.
On the first of three days of national mourning for the victims, construction experts and prosecutors inspected the charred shell of the building in the city of Kamien Pomorski for clues to the cause of a fire that swept through it early Monday.
Twenty people were injured, most suffering broken bones after leaping from the three-story building to escape the blaze. Local hospital officials said their condition was improving.
A number of irregularities had already been found in the work of local construction inspectors who had allowed people to live in the building despite code violations and did not order any improvements, said Pawel Biedziak, spokesman for the state-run Supreme Auditing Chamber, which monitors adherence to regulations.
The building in Kamien Pomorski, about 370 miles (600 kilometers) northwest of Warsaw, was originally a spartan hotel for workers in the region’s gas fields. Ownership of the building was transferred to the county government a few years ago.
Survivor Emilia Staniszewska said no renovation or adaptations were made when the building was turned into a shelter.
“I went from one official to another with letters saying the house has asbestos elements and is not safe to live, but no one did anything to change that,” Staniszewska said on TVN24 television.
After an overnight emergency meeting by some government ministers, Interior Minister Grzegorz Schetyna has ordered a detailed check of all shelters in the country. He also said a report on the rescue effort at the shelter in Kamien Pomorski was expected on Thursday.
City Mayor Bronislaw Karpinski on Tuesday raised the death toll from 21 to 22 and said one young woman was still unaccounted for. Witnesses said she had jumped from the burning building and was taken by an ambulance.
City officials distributed aid to survivors and appealed for donations of new clothes and school books for children.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Cabinet was to decide Tuesday how much financial help to provide.
National fire department spokesman Pawel Fratczak said it was Poland’s deadliest fire since October 1980, when 55 people were killed in a blaze at a psychiatric hospital in Gorna Grupa in central Poland.