The Danish emergency services organisation, Danske Beredskaber, reports that over 700 places in Denmark offering overnight accommodation built before 2007 have inadequate fire safety measures.
The problem was highlighted last year when Svinkløv Badehotel in northern Jutland burnt to the ground.
But they still may be legal …
“I knew that a lot of the older places had problems with fire safety, but I’m actually rather shocked that the figures are so high,” said Danske Beredskaber secretary general Bjarne Nigaard, according to TV2 Nyheder.
According to Danske Beredskaber, a one-storey building ought to have a simple warning system in every bedroom, whilst multi-storey buildings should have an automatic fire alarm system that works in every room. Out of 837 inspected older establishments, 615 of them did not live up to these criteria.
Even though the organisation recommends that all places offering overnight accommodation upgrade their fire safety installations, legally-speaking they only have to live up to the standard in force when the hotel was built.
