4 Dead And 2 Critical In Phuket N'club Fire

[kamui]

you are right! I have been in Patong hospital myself so I know what I am talking about! just a typical public hospital far away from the Bumrungrad, GBH or Samativej....

 

My brother was severely burnt when there was a small gasoline explosion, while repairing a car (3. grade, face, front of upper body, hands, legs). First he was moved to a local hospital where they just put him in an a bed and since it was summer they even kept the windows open (no aircon). My mother fought hard to have him transferred to a hospital with a special burn unit: special rooms with overpressure to keep the germs out, no entry in street clothes, specially trained personell and special daily burn treatment. He got virtually no scars left, but if he had stayed at the first hospital he would be scarred for life.

 

I guess they have specialized untis at the international hospitals in BKK. Hopefully the burnt tourist have a good health insurance.

[sayjann]

you are right! I have been in Patong hospital myself so I know what I am talking about! just a typical public hospital far away from the Bumrungrad, GBH or Samativej....

i'm definately no expert on the BKK hospitals but i've never had a problem with the main hospital in Patong.

ok,only minor injuries and not anything like heart surgery or anytjing like that but i never had omplaints about the wat i was treated.

treated within minutes for cuts and bruises and a broken bone once and left very happy.

i know my experiences will not mirror many other BM's experiences but what i saw on my visits impressed me for a so-called 3rd world country.

i had 30 Years experience of working in front-line medical care and i saw many good things compared to what i saw in the UK.

but as i say,i never experienced anything major like the injuries suffered by these people in the fire.

 

but i wonder about this fire.

if the Tiger nightclub they are talking about is the one i know then i'm surprised.

very spacious and opens onto the street with a large open area to get out/enter.

if it is the same place then it's normally full of BG's and not that many customers.

from what i gather from the article no staff were injured which i find strange.

[Horneytorney]

treated within minutes for cuts and bruises and a broken bone once and left very happy.

sure those minor stuff they can manage, but people with third-degree burns in critical condition! holy shit!

[pasathai1]

All that styrofoam and plastic was a problem waiting for ignition .

[gobbledonk]

but i wonder about this fire.

if the Tiger nightclub they are talking about is the one i know then i'm surprised.

very spacious and opens onto the street with a large open area to get out/enter.

if it is the same place then it's normally full of BG's and not that many customers.

from what i gather from the article no staff were injured which i find strange.

 

As Flasher highlighted in his news item, the fire broke out 2 hours after the place was supposed to have closed for the evening. My *guess* is that it was customers and (genuine) bar staff only, but we've all been in places with the lights out and plenty of girls who have 'finished wok' - I just make it a point that any such place I find myself in at that hour is open air with easy ingress and egress. If any form of altercation starts, I want to be able to get the hell out of the way before I become part of the problem - this tactic has served me eztremely well in every instance bar one. Pushing a sawnoff fuckwit into a row of bikes wasn't my finest hour, and I was sure I'd get pounded by the owners of the bikes, but they were more intent on separating us. I can normally walk away from loudmouths, but this little bastard really went out of his way to piss me off - no excuse for short man syndrome.

 

(if he had been Thai, it would have been different, but he wasnt - he was just another Farang arsehole and Patts had lowered my tolerance for same)

[Horneytorney]

Pushing a sawnoff fuckwit into a row of bikes wasn't my finest hour, and I was sure I'd get pounded by the owners of the bikes, but they were more intent on separating us. I can normally walk away from loudmouths, but this little bastard really went out of his way to piss me off - no excuse for short man syndrome.

 

(if he had been Thai, it would have been different, but he wasnt - he was just another Farang arsehole and Patts had lowered my tolerance for same)

I would be very very careful and completely stay out of such situations and control your temper all the time! you never know! I had in the past for some years a driver with some thai army background. once while drinking a guy wanted to touch me, the driver saw this and beat the shit out of this guy, who spent afterwards a couple of days in the hospital!

[Flashermac]

4 killed in Phuket disco blaze

 

 

The owner of the fire-gutted Tiger Discotheque is likely to face charges of illegally modifying the nightclub and opening outside of licensed hours.

 

Pol Maj Gen Chonnasit Wattanawarangkoon, commander of Phuket police, said investigations would focus on the building's modifications.

 

A police committee has been set up to investigate the blaze.

 

According to initial investigations, the fire broke out shortly before 4am Friday at Tiger Discotheque on Bangla Road in the Patong beach area of Kathu district.

 

The two-storey premises were bustling with customers.

 

Three foreigners are thought to be among the four dead, although this had not been confirmed because the autopsy and identity verification process is still under way.

 

Assistant national police chief Pol Lt Gen Chalermkiat Sriworakhan said the panel will also investigate if the venue broke the law by operating beyond the legal hours.

 

He said that no charges have been filed against anyone yet.

 

Patong municipality clerk Poonsak Naksena said authorities are prepared for a thorough inspection of the building structure. It will be demolished if it has been irreparably damaged by the blaze.

 

The club is reported to be close to collapse after the fire.

 

According to Mr Poonsak, every building in Patong is built in compliance with the building control law, but he is not sure if the club's internal modifications were lawful.

 

"The law requires a building to be equipped with a fire exit and fire extinguishers," he said.

 

"But what we usually see is that the fire exit is locked and no one knows how to operate fire-fighting equipment."

 

He said the blaze serves as another lesson for operators to strictly comply with safety measures and train their staff to handle emergencies.

 

Rescue workers pulled the charred bodies of the victims out of the wreckage Friday morning. They were burned beyond recognition.

 

According to Public Health Minister Witthaya Buranasiri, of the 11 who were injured, seven are Thai and the rest are French nationals.

 

He said that nine were sent home after receiving treatment. Most suffered burns and one had a broken leg.

 

The two who remained hospitalised are a Thai woman who suffered from smoke inhalation and a French tourist who suffered 40% burns. Neither of their lives is in danger.

 

According to the investigation, there was a heavy downpour before the fire erupted.

 

It was suspected that the heavy rain caused an electricity transformer to explode, which might have sparked the fire at the disco.

 

Customer Kanya Pornkhanthong, 26, said that she and her friends were in front of the stage during a live performance when someone yelled "Fire!"

 

"We thought it was a joke. We kept dancing. Then we saw smoke. Then there were sparks and lights fell down and people started to panic," she said.

 

Ms Kanya said that she started running but got stuck at the fire exit as people scrambled to get out. A spark fell on her clothes, which caught fire.

 

"Someone put it out and helped me," she said.

 

According to other witnesses, there was a loud explosion on the second floor and a lot of thick smoke. Materials on the walls started to melt.

 

Pimpan Thongwiset, a worker at the Tiger Discotheque, said there were about 100 members of staff on the ground floor of the pub when the blaze broke out.

 

"Everyone was having a good time when a loud explosion took place. There was a burst of heat and the lights fell down," she said.

 

"I could hardly breathe while I looked for the fire escape."

 

Ms Pimpan was among the workers who turned up to see what was left of their workplace.

 

The fire caused several millions of baht worth of damage.

 

The fire was reminiscent of the massive blaze at the Santika nightclub in Bangkok during the 2009 New Year celebrations.

 

The fire, caused by pyrotechnics during a performance by a rock band, and which took place shortly after midnight on Jan 1, 2009, killed 66 revellers and injured scores more.

 

My link

[sayjann]

sure those minor stuff they can manage, but people with third-degree burns in critical condition! holy shit!

the majority of people visiting hospitals are only for minor injuries.

where i work we do not have the facilities for burns/major head injuries and the like.

common practice to then stabalise the patient and then transfer them to a specialist hospital.

nothing new in that news.

 

but i do know the place involved and i never knew of the upstairs area where the incident happened.

Tiger was never my type of place but every now and then i would walk around and just have a look downstairs.

if it was open hours after official closing time then surely a a little cash 'might' exchange might have taken place.

but then again i've been in bars until the sun has risen and no problems.

[kamui]

 

but then again i've been in bars until the sun has risen and no problems.

 

Isn't that what so many visitor and expat praise in LOS? That it isn't 'over regulated' like the USA and most European countries? That rules aren't being enforced at all cost or are being weak (see P4P for Farangs)? That you can pursue your life without frequent interference by authorities?

 

I guess everything has its price. In the West the price is more equally shared among all people (enforced closing rules limit the choice for all people for example), while in LOS many people don't have to pay anything (closing rules are being ignored). But in the end someone has to pay the bill and this can be deadly...

[Gadfly]

When I just look at the New section here, the subject of the next thread under this one was about a new government anti-corruption initiative. How is that for irony?

 

This will happen again. Unless and until Thai authorities starting holding those responsible for these travesties accountable, this will happen again. I guarantee it.

 

Look at the meager punishment meted out (on what appear to be proxies) in the Santika tragedy. If a disco operator/owner can pay a few bribes to avoid more expensive safety measures, and he can bribe his way out of being held accountable when lives are lost because he failed to take appropriate safety measures, he'll pay those bribes. Thailand has laws on the books on building safety; plenty of them. But unless and until Thai authorities start to hold people accountable for violating such laws, this will happen again.