Lat Phrao fire death toll reaches 36

There has already been a lot of criticism leveled at Thai authorities for their seemingly abject failure to properly enforce compliance and safety standards. The growing number of fatalities from the Rong Beer Na tragedy only adds fuel to the fire (poor pun).

Sadly, this happened despite the lessons that should have been learnt after Santika Club fire right here in Bangkok on New Year's Eve 2009 that killed 67 people under almost the exact same conditions (indoor fireworks hitting a combustible roof with severe exit bottlenecks).

But before the standard "only in Thailand" bashing derails the thread, let's keep some global perspective. Thailand is unfortunately not unique when it comes to horrific entertainment venue fires. When greed and poor fire codes collide, the results are catastrophic anywhere in the world.

I did a quick search of the Web and found the following list of a few similar events:

1. United States (2003): The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island killed 100 people after illegal indoor fireworks lit cheap soundproofing foam.

2. Russia (2009): The Lame Horse club fire in Perm claimed 156 lives due to plastic ceiling decorations and a lack of exits.

3. Brazil (2013): The Kiss nightclub fire killed 242 people under almost identical conditions of overcrowding, toxic acoustic foam, and blocked exits.

4. Romania (2015): The Colectiv nightclub fire in Bucharest killed 64 people due to single-door exit bottlenecks and flammable foam.

The common denominator in all of these isn't Thai culture or "Amazing Thailand" bureaucracy, it's venue owners globally ignoring basic safety regulations to squeeze a profit, coupled with inspectors turning a blind eye.

Thailand clearly needs to do a lot more to cleanup of its nightlife licensing loopholes, but let's not pretend this brand of negligence is strictly local.