Koszalin escape room fire

A fire in the ToNiePokój^[a] escape room in Koszalin, Poland, on 4 January 2019, killed five teenage customers and injured an adult employee. The deceased, all 15-year-old girls, were celebrating one of the girls' birthdays when a fire, fueled by leaking gas cylinders, broke out in the escape room's waiting area. Since the girls were in a room with no door handle (they were expected to find it as part of a game) and the windows were obstructed by "makeshift walls", they were trapped and died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Koszalin escape room fire

Date	4 January 2019 (2019-01-04)
Time	17:15 (UTC+01:00)
Location	Koszalin, Poland
Coordinates	54°11′50.5″N 16°12′30.0″E
Cause	Leaking gas cylinders used for heating stove
Deaths	5
Non-fatal injuries	1

Previous visitors to the ToNiePokój escape room had complained of a strong gas smell, but local officials were not made aware of the complaints. The duty employee who was to supervise the girls, Radosław D., had left the building to get change for the cashier and was gone when the fire started. Upon his return, he attempted to enter the victims' room, but was blocked by a wall of flames.

Four people were arrested and tried for their responsibility in the fire: Miłosz S., the designer and organizer of the escape room; Miłosz's grandmother Małgorzata W., in whose name the business was registered; Miłosz's mother Beata W.; and Radosław. The Koszalin district court sentenced Miłosz and Radosław to two years in prison and imposed a 10-year ban on their conducting any sports, recreation or cultural activities. Małgorzata W. and Beata W. were sentenced to one year in prison, an additional three-year suspended sentence, and were banned from running a business for 10 years. The court also awarded 200,000zł compensation to each victim's family.

Because of the fire, Poland implemented new regulations for entertainment venues, requiring for them to undergo inspections by fire officials at least every two years. The regulations also required ample evacuation routes. The ToNiePokój escape room fire is mentioned in the directive as justification for the rule.

Background

The ToNiePokój escape room was registered with the Polish government in 2018 ^[1] and offered four escape room choices: Darkness, Party, Workshop, and Crime, at a cost of 249zł (USD 64.85 in 2019) for 120 minutes. The escape room was advertised as a place to "spend your birthday creatively".^[2] Darkness, which the victims chose, was "no bigger than a closet",^[3] measuring approximately 7 m² (75 sq ft).^[4] Candles, makeshift equipment, two armchairs, and a lamp were the accoutrements inside Darkness,^[5] whose story line was that the uncle of one of the players had secluded himself in his house for years. To leave the house, the players must discover his secret.^[2]

The building's windows had been covered with "makeshift walls",^[3] the room's door had no handle,^[6] since the victims were supposed to find the handle as part of the game ^[7] There was no panic button to open the door in an emergency.^[8] Previous visitors had found the escape room to be in poor condition,^[9] complaining about a strong gas smell and "makeshift" electrical wiring.^[2] Jarosław Szymczyk, Commander-in-Chief of Police, stated that local officials were not made aware of these complaints.^[10]

Fire

At approximately 5:15 p.m. on 4 January 2019, a fire broke out in one of the two compartments of the escape room at 88 Marshal Józef Piłsudski Street.^[6][11] Five 15-year-old girls – Amelia Wieczorek, Małgorzata Tymieniecka, Julia Pawlak, Karolina Barabas, and Wiktoria Pietras^[9] – died of carbon monoxide poisoning.^[12] They were students of class III D at Junior Gymnasium No. 9 (currently Primary School No. 18) in Koszalin and were close friends, celebrating Pawlak's birthday.^[9][13][14] At the time of their deaths, they were in a room called Darkness^[15] at the back of the building and were not directly burned by the fire.^[16][17] The official investigation found the fire began in the waiting room of the building^[15] and was fueled by leaking gas cylinders attached to a heating stove.^[18]

The gas cylinder finding has been disputed by the victims' parents, who claimed the fire was caused by a live fire such as a burning candle or "a cigarette left on the couch by an employee".^[15] According to the parents, an experiment with a gas cylinder demonstrated a completely different damage pattern to the stove's casing than what was reported in the official investigation files.^[15] The employee on duty, Radosław D., was not present when the fire started,^[19] since he was in a nearby store to change money,^[6] and a wall of flames prevented him from opening the room when he returned. According to the prosecutor's office, Radosław did not attempt to extinguish the fire or use extinguishers.^[19] According to the prosecutor, if Radoslaw had been present, he could have revealed a hidden passage behind a false fireplace leading the victims to a fire-free adjacent room^[15]

The girls called the fire department and told the dispatcher that they were trapped, that there was a large volume of smoke, and that they needed help.^[14] At about 5:30 p.m.,^[20] Pietras called her father and said "Dad, fire!" (Polish: Tata, pożar!), her last words to him.^[14] Her father testified that he initially thought that the call was part of the puzzle, then, after he realised there was a fire, he told her to get to the floor and try to escape.^[20] Firefighters on the scene needed to use specialized equipment to enter the building.^[21]

Trial

The Koszalin District Prosecutor's Office conducted the investigation.^[22] The victims' parents entered the case as subsidiary prosecutors [pl].^[23] Four people were arrested and charged: Miłosz S., the designer and organizer of the escape room; Miłosz's grandmother Małgorzata W., in whose name the business was registered; Miłosz's mother Beata W.; and Radosław, the employee on duty at the time of the incident. None of them pleaded guilty, and Miłosz and Radosław blamed one other. Miłosz said that Radosław went against policy by using the gas heater when customers were present and did not properly instruct the victims on how to use their emergency walkie-talkie. Radosław said that Miłosz did not provide sufficient health and safety training and claimed that Miłosz cut corners in the safety of the escape room.^[6]

The Koszalin district court sentenced Miłosz and Radosław to two years in prison and imposed a 10-year ban on managing sports, recreation, and culture activities. Małgorzata and Beata were sentenced to one year in prison, plus a suspended sentence of three years, and were banned from running a business for 10 years. The court also awarded 200,000zł (USD 47577.51) compensation to each victim's family. The parents of the victims were dismayed at the sentences, calling them "embarrassingly low".^[24] The court acknowledged that the defendants would have to live with the fact that they caused the deaths of five children, and took this into account with the sentencing.^[25]

The rescue operation was also investigated. Some of the witnesses at the trial testified that the paramedic at the scene did not perform resuscitation on the victims. According to some of the witnesses and the victims' parents, he wrongly assumed that they were dead. There was also an unauthorized person in the room with the emergency dispatcher.^[6]

Aftermath

Responses

Immediately after the tragedy, President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and United States Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher, amongst others, expressed their condolences to the families of the deceased.^[26] Duda described the incident on Twitter as a "crushing tragedy".^[12] The mayor of Koszalin, Piotr Jedlinski, announced 6 January as a day of mourning for the city,^[27] and requested that residents refrain from entertainment events or parties.^[12] Performances at the Bałtycki Teatr Dramatyczny [pl] and cultural events at the Centrum Kultury 105 scheduled for 5 January were cancelled.^[28] The Epiphany procession planned for 6 January in Koszalin was also cancelled.^[29] Due to the tragedy, the Polish premiere of the film Escape Room was postponed and eventually cancelled.^[30][31] The five young victims were buried together on 10 January at the Koszalin municipal cemetery ^[32] to music that Pietras had written and recorded.^[11][33]

Regulation

Before the incident, escape rooms in Poland were not required to undergo fire department inspections.^[34] After this tragedy, Morawiecki announced the standardization of escape rooms in Poland with regulations set by the State Fire Service, the police, and building supervision inspectors.^[35]

In response to this tragedy, the Minister of the Interior and Administration, Joachim Brudziński, ordered the Commander-in-Chief of the State Fire Service to carry out inspections of all escape room facilities in Poland.^[29] Czech and Lithuanian fire officials announced inspections of escape rooms in their respective countries.^[36][37] In Poland, 520 facilities were inspected, almost 2000 violations were found, and 102 bans on the use of the facilities were issued. By 7 February, 133 facilities had fixed all violations.^[38]

On 11 January 2019, Brudziński signed an amendment on the regulation of fire protection of buildings, specifically regarding the evaluation of fire protection in entertainment businesses. It required the practical inspection of the ability of the facility to evacuate people quickly in the case of a fire and verification of compliance with fire protection requirements every two years. The justification for the draft regulation says that the amendment is a reaction to 4 January escape room fire in Koszalin.^[39]

Notes

1. Pronounced [ˈtɔ ˈɲɛ ˈpɔ.kuj], literally 'this is not a room'.