The kitchen staff left the grill on for a long time, and when hot oil got on it, a fire started.

According to the Report, the Sabah newspaper writes about this.

According to the information received by the investigators, the fire started at 03.21. The cook and several employees tried to extinguish the fire with water, not with a fire extinguisher. For this reason, the fire flared up even more.

"The fire through the hood, which has not been cleaned for a long time, got into the chimney and from there quickly reached the roof of the hotel," the newspaper reports. The newspaper claims that the kitchen staff panicked and ran out of the hotel, and the guests could not find out about the fire in time because the fire alarm was not working.

One of the chefs reported that they tried to extinguish the fire on their own for about 40 minutes, but they did not see any fire extinguishers. According to him, the kitchen staff rescued several people who jumped from the hotel windows by laying mattresses for them.

The passages to the fire escapes in the hotel were blocked, and there was no mandatory fire extinguishing system in such buildings, which contributed to an increase in the number of victims, Haji Latif Ishchan, an expert on emergency situations and labor protection, said earlier.

It should be noted that 18 people were arrested in connection with the fire.