My friend went to Fun City which is on first floor in centrepoint and asked them about fire exits... the staff had no idea where they were, if any and to be honest I couldn't see any fire exits as such when i was there. What i mean to say is that there were no big obvious signs.
Another friend said she knew that Jungle Zone had fire exits- only problem was that they were painted the same colour as the walls so were not obvious. At least that's on the ground floor I suppose.
I do know that the SEC and ministry is pretty strict on health and safety when it comes to granting licenses for nurseries and schools. A friend of mine was declined permission for a creche in the basement of a building because their were no proper fire exits and windows etc. the ministry and the fire dept came to check the location, I think the loophole lies in the fact that these daytime mall activity centers are not given the same importance or duty of care even though they are responsible for children. The government needs to reassess and make new laws to include these kinds of facilities in he stringent checks that they appear to do for normal nurseries.
I know a lot of people have defended the lady who owns the nursery but I cant help feeling that she had a duty of care towards her staff and those children regardless of how the mall dealt with its safety issues.
It is not enough for someone who has care of children to rely on licenses and government loopholes. In my opinion she had a responsibility as well to train her staff and ensure those children were not in danger if anything happened.
The fact that there was a false alarm the day before should have been a warning for the owner..what would have happened if it really had been a fire? unfortunately we all found out. I feel sorry for her because she is going to have to live with the knowledge that those people and kids died because of her negligence as well as villagio's. What a burden to carry. It doesn't matter if she is absolved of duty of care by the investigation- in her heart she must know she could have helped prevent the tragedy. You cant absolve yourself by saying well the license was granted- not my responsibility or problem.
Another friend visited the gympanzee centre and told me that he realised striaghtaway the dangers the corridor posed and the narrow entrance and stairwell to the room itself as well as the lack of windows opening to the outside or even to the mall itself. His regret is that he wasnt more vocal about it. He simply didnt put his child in there because of those reasons.
It shows that perhaps we should be more vocal, leave suggestion cards, phone people, management, magazines, newspapers etc to draw attention to these kinds of dangers.