Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – As the death toll from Sunday night's grisly fire in a South Sumatra karaoke club climbs, building experts admit that many karaoke bars, entertainment centres, hotels and even office buildings are fire disasters just waiting to happen.

Palembang Fire Department head Andas Bastoni said he was not surprised that at least 53 had perished when the fire, believed to be the result of faulty electrical wiring, hit the Heppi 45 karaoke club.

"All the floors were sub-divided into many, many little rooms. Lots of rooms for asoy," said Dr Andas, using a slang word for fooling around. Karaoke clubs in Indonesia often double up as brothels.

"There were no proper escapes as the corridors between them were only one metre wide," he said. As well as no fire escapes, there was no emergency exit on the ground floor.

The five-storey club should also have had windows that opened but the owners had built fake ones facing the main street to cover up solid concrete walls.

Many victims probably died from smoke inhalation when they were trapped on the upper floors, said Dr Andas.

The Fire Department had to blast holes in the street-front walls to try to recover victims. Some bodies had been so badly burnt they were just charred bones.

Those caught on the upper floors could not be rescued immediately because the fire department's longest rescue ladder was not long enough, said Dr Andas.

And emergency workers said yesterday that there could be more bodies to recover as the top floor was still too hot to enter.

The owner of the building applied for a restaurant licence two years ago but later opened a karaoke club in secret – a common practice in Indonesia, according to Dr Andas. The owner, now wanted by the police, also added two storeys to the original three-storey building without government consent.

Palembang police said yesterday they had arrested the club's manager, identified as Akun.

Palembang, an industrial city in South Sumatra, has at least 50 other hotels, supermarkets and office buildings which do not meet fire regulations issued in 2000, said Dr Andas.

The problem is widespread in the country. According to Mr Robert Simantuk from Jakarta's Building Inspection Department, many cities across Indonesia have poor fire-safety and building standards as there is no national yardstick.

But several local governments were taking it upon themselves to try to meet fire safety criteria in the capital.

In Jakarta, the city with the strictest fire legislation in Indonesia, new buildings must have a fire exit located at least 50 m from corridors or public spaces. And a five-storey nightclub or entertainment building would have to have at least one emergency stair exit, said Mr Simantuk. Cinemas, malls and offices must all have fire detectors, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems.

But Jakarta-based architect Sonny Sutanto, who designs hotels, malls and large office buildings, said: "It is easy to bend the rules."