Swissotel balcony walls are of legal height: BCA
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The Building and Constructions Authority (BCA) has confirmed with Yahoo Singapore that the balcony walls of Swissotel The Stamford are of legal height.
This comes as two deaths occurred at the hotel just days apart from one another in the past week, with both the deceased believe to have fallen from a height in the hotel.
The body of a 33-year-old man was found near the main entrance at the ground floor of the hotel last Wednesday, while an Australian woman in her 50s was found dead on the parapet five days prior.
Standing at 226m, Swissotel The Stamford is one of the tallest hotels in Southeast Asia. All of its 1,261 rooms and suites come with a private balcony.
A BCA spokesperson confirmed that the hotel’s balcony walls measure 1.1m from the floor, which is 0.1m higher than the legally-mandated height.
The ruling applies to all safety barriers on buildings such as parapet walls and balcony railings. This requirement is similar to that of many countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Speaking to Channel NewsAsia Wednesday, Swissotel The Stamford’s marketing communications director Vivian Tung said, “Every balcony has a lock. Based on guest requests, we have unlocked and locked balcony doors but the balconies remain an operational thing.”
The statement has since been redacted from the current version of the Channel NewsAsia report. No explanation was given for the redaction although Tung mentioned in the report that Swissotel staff are assisting in police investigations.
The Swissotel chain also operates the Swissotel Merchant Court hotel located at Clarke Quay. Unlike its sister branch, only a portion of its 476 rooms have a private balcony. Guests here can also request for the doors to the balcony to be locked upon check-in.
Other large hotel chains in Singapore are aware of the recent incidents, and have maintained that safety measures have always been in place for rooms and suites with attached balconies.
Speaking to Yahoo Singapore, a representative from the Fullerton Hotel stated that guests can request to have balcony doors locked.
Although representatives from the Pan Pacific and Shangri-La hotel chains in Singapore say they are aware of the issue, they did not reply by press time to Yahoo Singapore’s requests for comment.-- Yahoo! SG
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we know they din fall by accident..........
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JUMPERS