Hugh_Hoy Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 This doesn't apply to the Sandika or Pattaya fires, but something guys here might think about when checking into a hotel/condo. Best floor to get a room is the fourth floor. The fourth floor (U.S. numbering)is above the usual level where a car bomb will have serious effect, but low enough that fire trucks equipped with ladders can reach. If you're above the 5th floor, the ladders from rescuing trucks are of no help to you...get to a lower floor if possible. HH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waerth Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Well not a real friend of mine, but a girl in the condo that I always called "miss Santika" has been missing since the fire. The three Santika staff members in my building have been accounted for. But they reminded me that they hadn't seen the girl all week. She was kind of a party animal. She usually arrived at the condobuilding at 3 in the morning or so. And we used to talk a bit from time to time. She about Santika and me about comedy. I always called her khun Santika, I have no idea what her real name is. Hope she will still turn up .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Bangkok Post 6 Jan 2009 Blazing pub was 'a deathtrap' Investigators slam lack of safety equipment The Santika Club, which became a deadly inferno in the first hour of Jan 1, was a deathtrap due to hazardous materials inside and a lack of safety equipment, an engineering expert says. Pitchaya Chantranuwat, head of the building safety sub-committee of the Engineering Institute of Thailand, made the assessment after inspecting the debris of Santika on Soi Ekamai yesterday with crime scene investigators and public works officials from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Mr Pitchaya said the pub lacked basic equipment to deal with a fire, including emergency lamps, fire exit signs and sprinklers. The three exits for its area of about 400 square metres were insufficient to deal with 400 guests, he said. Had it had sufficient sprinklers, emergency lights and more prominent fire exit signs, revellers could have escaped and survived the fire, Mr Pitchaya said. The main gate of the pub was 2.18 metres wide. In a fire, the door would be adequate for just 200 people to escape, he said. Mr Pitchaya also said there were a large number of highly inflammable materials in the pub, such as fibreglass, resin and plastic. The pub's walls were lined with polystyrene. When the material caught fire, it emitted toxic gases that caused victims to pass out, he added. Vicharn Peawnim, a forensic doctor at Ramathibodi Hospital, said carbon monoxide, which was a toxic gas, was the main cause of deaths in the pub fire. The gas replaces oxygen in blood, so many victims died when their brains were deprived of oxygen. It would be easier to treat burnt skin than to treat people who had inhaled toxic gases, the doctor added. Arthi Krueawit, a surgeon at the same hospital, agreed that toxic smoke was extremely dangerous. In the first week following the blaze, the clogged alveoli of the contaminated lungs could swell up, causing acute respiratory failure, he said. Victims should return to doctors and use respirators that will replace toxic substances in their lungs with oxygen, he suggested. The Foundation for Consumers recommended a convenient way for victims of the Santika pub fire and their relatives to receive reasonable compensation. Foundation secretary-general Saree Ongsomwang said under the Consumer Case Procedure Act effective last year, victims of the pub fire could be considered as consumers who had a right to demand reasonable compensation from the operators. She said the new act provides fast processing of compensation demands and judges can raise the compensation for victims and fine wrongdoers. Representatives of White & Brothers, the company that operated Santika, received compensation requests from victims and their relatives at the Thong Lor police station yesterday. According to Pongsak Poolcharoen, the company's lawyer, 31 shareholders of Santika raised two million baht [color:red]from their own pockets[/color] to initially help victims. The company will accept compensation demands until Friday. It received only about 50 demands yesterday, the lawyer said. Among complainants, Thanakorn Duangsawat, 34, said the treatment in the first three days for his 25-year-old sister Anchitcha, whose body suffered 10 per cent burns, had cost as much as 240,000 baht. She had been released from an intensive care unit (ICU) at Bangkok Hospital on Sunday and would be admitted until tomorrow. He expects the bill to reach 300,000 baht. The death toll from the Santika pub fire reached 64 as Japanese victim Keiichi Wada died on Sunday night. Of the 68 injured, 35 remained in ICUs yesterday. Police Forensic Science Department chief Pol Maj-Gen Danaithorn Wongthai said evidence had been gathered including video clippings from the mobile phones of visitors at the pub. Police are still waiting to finalise witness accounts. So far more than 100 witnesses have spoken to police. Thong Lor police station chief Pol Col Suthin Sapphuang said police wanted to interrogate Suriya Ritrabue, managing director of White & Brothers, but his whereabouts were unknown. Police issued a summons for Mr Suriya and 12 other pub executives to come forward for questioning tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Anyone know of an updated list of the dead and/or injured. Cant find one myself. Still looking to see if I know anyone who has been lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drogon Posted January 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Girlfriend told me there was a list at Thonglor police station...also said it was available on internet but I have to ask here on which site if you wish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Please do, getting increasingly concerned about a friend of mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drogon Posted January 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Missus is going to a meeting now so don't expect an answer for a few hours. Will ask her this evening (BKK time) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faustian Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waerth Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 Most of the lists I have seen earlier on only stated full Thai names .... transliterated. So I hope you know your friends Thai name. Good Luck Faustian. I hope your friend is AWOL for another reason .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ8LxIF9dIc Who the hell forwards these photos ? Seriously - burnt and disfigured bodies laid out for our 'viewing pleasure' ? The worst example I have seen arrived on a co-workers computer - she had a spit about what her boyfriend had sent to her at work, and I stupidly looked at her monitor, thinking it was porn. It was a photo of a motorbike rider, or rather parts of a motorbike rider, after he had lost it at about 200 km/h. These are the kind of images that leave emergency services workers traumatised, and we are forwarding them to other people ? WTF ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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