I’m not not wanting to excuse managerial idiocy and locked emergency exist, but;
Many people when faced with a real fire seriously under-estimate the immediate threat it poses. They think it’s small and nothing to worry panic about, and it’s not going to get any bigger, or it’ll take a while to get bigger and by then it’ll will have be handled. They don’t have any experience in the speed and danger of a real fire.
By the time they do appreciate how dangerous it is, it is often already too late.
So it’s not unusual for people to behave inappropriately when faced with a fire emergency. Perhaps some of the quoted empolyees didn’t at first fully appreciate the scale of emergency they were facing, and so reverted to everyday security concerns. “Sure, there’s a fire,” they think. “But it’s not big enough to excuse people paying before they leave. Time enough for that.”
Similarly, it’s not unusual for others to attempt to put out a fire they really haven’t a prayer against. Again, they don’t appreciate the danger they are in.
This is why it’s so important to have a rehearsed fire drill. Something that people can do automatically, rather than letting them try and work out the best course of action in a situation they have no experience of. Obviously this shopping mall didn’t and that’s the management and owner’s fault.