Towering Inferno : the Highrise Horror Story

A fter motor vehicle accidents and domestic homicide, Thais are most likely to die from fire related accident at home, work or even in very public places such as shopping malls and hotels. There are on average about 3,000 reported fire accidents each year in Bangkok. These accidents are few in proportion to the city's population, but even a minor accident can left disastrious consequences. The risk of human casualty is far greater in a place like Bangkok if one take into consideration the urban density and poor safety standards. Although big skyscrapers 'inferno' are few it's not altogether uncommon. With many unscrupulous businessmen making illegal extension to buildings, not wanting to invest in the building's warning device, and other forms of negligence can be attributed to the poor fire safety records in Thailand. Government agencies and businesses now only begining to get serious on this issue. And this only come after a series of catastropic incidents in Thailand that occurred in recent years already claimed the lives of many innocent victims. On July 15, 1997 a fiery inferno broke out at the 36 storey Meridien President tower in downtown Bangkok. The accident occurred only days before the building was to be officially opened. The fire was believed to have started by an electrical fault in the building's air conditioning unit. At the time this accident occured, the safety system, including alarm and smoke detector were all switched off. Luckily the fire was contained in just over two hours and the building escaped any serious structural damages. Thick billowing clouds of smoke coming out of the tower blackened the whole downtown area. Luckily the emergency rescue arrived at the scene quickly. Many people in the building were swift to safety by the helicopter. Even then, the rescue attempt was a near disaster - it came very close to more tragedy when the helicopter's pilot was blinded temporarily by the smoke and the chopper's tail rammed into the building's glassed facade. But eventually the pilot recovered and managed manoever away from the building and make successful crash landing at a nearby sportsground. The evacuer and evacuee were quickly treated at nearby hospital from burnt and smoke inhalation. Overall, there were only three fatalities in this incident. In that same year, a fire also broke out at the Royal Jomtien Resort Hotel in the coastal city of Pattaya. This is a less fortunate incident with over 90 casualties, 11 of whom non-Thai nationals. The building's fire exit were 'accidentally' locked and so many people were trapped inside the building. State agencies were partly to blame for the high death toll in this incident. Pattaya City was poorly equipped with fire-fighting equipment to combat fires in the highrise zone (buildings over 10 storeys high). It took over 45 minutes for the first crane truck and helicopter to arrive at the scene from Bangkok. People outside the hotel can only watched in horror as the fire engulf the building and people scream for help. One tourist on a honeymoon watched his wife plunge to her death , when she made a desperate but failed attempt to flee the building from the ninth floor. This accident shocked the whole country and greatly damaged the reputation of this fun-loving seaside resort city. The local hotel association moved quickly to revoke licenses to 16 other medium sized hotels that was found to have no warning system installed at all. The government also enacted new legislation in a vain attempt to prevent another similar tragedy to occur. Perhaps the biggest such tragedy ever recorded in Thailand was the fire at the 16 storey Royal Plaza Hotel (Nakhon Ratchasima) in 1993, which claimed 137 lives and left hundreds injured. The fire has causes the building to collapse. This building was later proved to have been illegally modified and thus making it structurally unsound (it was also rumoured that the building - 15 storey high when it was approved for construction - were modified to 16 floors because some hotel guests are superstitious about the level 13th) . Fifteen people in charge of the hotel's management were found guilty of serious negligence and thus sentenced to life imprisonment. Less fortunate are those who lost their loved ones through the tragedy and a number of those who survived but suffered permanent disability. Source:Bangkok Post Archive