17 Girls Dead In Fire At School Dormitory In Chiang Rai

[bust]

 

 

BANGKOK - At least 17 girls died in the night after a fire swept through a school dormitory in the northern province of Chiang Rai, a police commander said on Monday, adding several others were either missing or injured.

The fire started late at night, meaning many of the children were asleep and unable to escape as flames engulfed the two-storey building.

"The fire broke out at 11pm on Sunday (local time, 1600 GMT). Seventeen girls were killed and two are still missing, with five injured," Police Colonel Prayad Singsin, Commander of Wiang Pa Pao district in Chiang Rai told AFP.

Two of the injured are in a serious condition, he added.

The Pitakkiat Wittaya School, which belongs to a local foundation and is not government run, is home to girls aged from three to 13 years old, he said.

A second police officer from the same precinct said the school is home to pupils from impoverished local hill tribes in the mountainous area.

"The fire is out, but the cause of the blaze is still under investigation," Prayad said, adding forensic officers were due to arrive on Monday.

A Chiang Rai provincial official confirmed the death toll, adding that the privately-run school is home to girls aged between six and 13 years old, drawn mainly from the deprived local hill tribes.

"There were 38 students inside the dormitory when the fire broke out. Some were not yet asleep so they escaped," the province's deputy governor, Arkom Sukapan, told AFP.

"But others were asleep and could not escape, resulting in the large number of casualties."

Photographs on the school's Facebook page showed firefighters struggling to douse the flames as they tore through the wooden building.

Thai media showed a fire truck spraying water onto the blaze as the upper storey of the school was consumed by the fire.

Rescue workers picked through the debris late Sunday and into Monday morning.(continued below)

Firefighters and rescuers at the scene try to help trapped students (Photo taken from the Wiang Pa Pao police Facebook).

Thailand's is home to a patchwork of hill tribes who mainly live in the remote northern area bordering Laos and Myanmar.

Many are descendants of refugees from Myanmar or China and exist within subsistence farming communities often beyond the reach of state resources.

Hill tribe children suffer at school, as well as in their health and development.

Poverty means adults are easy prey for drug gangs who pay them to smuggle narcotics — including heroin and amphetamines — across the zone, known as the "Golden Triangle".

Thai security forces frequently engage in deadly gun battles with hill tribe drug mules in the region.

That link engenders prejudice among many Thais and hill tribes are often portrayed negatively in the media.

Chiang Rai town and the surrounding hills are popular with foreign tourists for hiking and adventure sports.

Tourists can go on tours to the visit the isolated tribes, although the practice of posing for photographs at villages has come in for criticism for degrading their unique culture and treating the ethnic groups exhibits in "human zoos".

Thailand has poor health and safety standards and accidents are common across the kingdom.

[YimSiam]

Terrible, terrible.

[dean]

I assume that poor safety standards include no fire sprinklers or smoke alarms or practicing fire alarm drills. It's horrible but maybe, it will lead to better safety procedures. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them.

[pasathai1]

we looked at Pensmith School located in Bangkok, for our daughters years ago, all the floors had locking metal bar doors that were locked at night, a real problem if there was a fire. I don't know if its the same now, or if this is common at other schools in Thailand, but It would be a good thing for some brave reporter to look into.

[Flashermac]

They were only on the first (North American second) floor, but they didn't jump out of the window. I certainly would have to escape flames. I presume the smoke must have got them. Thai language papers say that several girls realised the building was on fire and tried to warn their friends, but their friends wouldn't believe them and refused to get out of bed.

 

Pasathai - locking girls in dorms is standard, even in colleges. When I taught up north decades ago, the womens' dorms on campus were locked at 9pm. Anyone coming in after that had to ring the buzzer and asked to be let in. Still, I'm sure those inside could have opened the doors in an emergency. But at the teachers college, it was different. An American exchange student there told me the girls were locked it and could not get out. It worried her quite a bit.

[pasathai1]

They were only on the first (North American second) floor, but they didn't jump out of the window. I certainly would have to escape flames. I presume the smoke must have got them. Thai language papers say that several girls realised the building was on fire and tried to warn their friends, but their friends wouldn't believe them and refused to get out of bed.

 

Pasathai - locking girls in dorms is standard, even in colleges. When I taught up north decades ago, the womens' dorms on campus were locked at 9pm. Anyone coming in after that had to ring the buzzer and asked to be let in. Still, I'm sure those inside could have opened the doors in an emergency. But at the teachers college, it was different. An American exchange student there told me the girls were locked it and could not get out. It worried her quite a bit.

 

 

 

thai logic, many locked doors, one person with key at night

[Coss]

thai logic, many locked doors, one person with key at night

 

Story I heard about flooding in North East Thailand a few years ago:

 

Manager has key to pump house that has pump that pumps when water too high. This pump prevents flooding. Manager goes away for weekend to next town. Manager has cellphone.

 

Water rises. Staff cannot open pump house door. Staff do not call manager, as this would indicate that he (manager) did not think to leave key with someone. This would be loss of face for manager.

 

Result = flooding.

 

Now a western culture, woulda called the manager, or broken the lock, or variation on that theme.

 

But this is Thailand.

 

Thainess

[Coss]

Or a better one, as detailed in the James Michener treatise on SEA, in the Thailand Section.

 

Back then (1950s) the main Post Office in Bangkok, Thailand was a grandiose affair with many boxes in which to mail letters, one for the Americas, one for Europe, one for Africa, etc etc.

 

So people would mail their letters, in the appropriate slot.

 

Every day a little old man would come at 5pm and empty the boxes into - one big bag on one small cart.

 

This would be funny if it didn't reference the deaths of 17 girls.