By Tom McRae
The New Zealand parents who lost their triplets in a mall fire in Doha are disgusted it has been reopened.
In May, Jane and Martin Weekes lost their two-year-old triplets when a fire broke out in the Villaggio mall and so far there have been no answers for them, or the other families of the 19 people killed.
Lillie, Jackson and Willsher Weekes were at the daycare centre in the Villaggio mall when a fire broke out in a sporting goods store.
“To this day we still don't know what happened,” says Mr Weekes. “We don't know what the safety failures were other than there were systemic failures. Everything from the emergency exits being chained, to no fire alarms, no sprinkler systems and no security. We don't know if they've been fixed.”
Nineteen people died in the fire including 13 children.
The mall has been totally renovated since the fire, and just reopened - much to the disgust of the victims' families.
“We had hoped that people would've been more communicative with us. We've heard nothing, nothing in four months other than what we've heard in the media. Then we heard today from the media that the mall had reopened - and that's two weeks after the mall owner failed to turn up in court,” says Mr Weekes.
An investigation was opened and five people including the mall's owner were arrested.
“People need to know that what went wrong, that it will never happen again,” says Mr Weekes. “To do that people need to be transparent in letting people know what the failures were no matter how embarrassing or difficult that may seem. Let people know and give people the assurance that it will never happen again because the right steps have been made.”
The Weekes say there will be no closure until that happens.
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