Four saved, father dead as "substandard" house collapses in Prachuap

[webfact]

Four saved, father dead as "substandard" house collapses in Prachuap

 

 

Caption: Rescue operation over four hours

 

A Thai family preparing to have their evening meal was covered in rubble when their house collapsed in on them in Muang district of Prachuap Khiri Khan yesterday. 

 

A long video showed hundreds of  rescue personnel working to free a mother, father and their three daughters from the remains of the house on Petchkasem Road. 

 

The mother who survived the ordeal has blamed poor construction of the property. 

 

Two members of the Thanlertpatanakit family were quickly brought out at 7pm. They were fourteen year old Rinyarat and 29 year old Thannicha. 

 

After three hours their mother Sirikarn, 52 was pulled from the rubble. She had injuries to her head but had been able to alert rescuers to her position in the house with a mobile phone. 

 

At 11 pm the father Chairot, 54, was brought out. He had been crushed by a ceiling and a wooden chest and had died of suffocation. 

 

The last family member - the eldest daughter Thanyakarn aged 31 - was then saved after a four our rescue drama. 

 

Prachuap Khiri Khan governor and health officials visited the survivors at Prachuap Hospital. 

 

Sirikarn said that she had just prepared dinner and they were getting ready to eat when she heard a noise like hail hitting the roof then the building collapsed in on them. 

 

She said the house had had problems ever since it was built 13 years ago. Sub-standard metal supports were used in its construction according to her younger brother. 

 

They had complained to the construction company. 

 

They were planning to knock it down and rebuild in a year or two. 

 

The property was used as a shop on the main road repairing dynamos and selling batteries for cars. 

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2019-05-01

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[Jonathan Fairfield]

Probe into shophouse that collapsed, killing father while family ate dinner

By Prirapan Rachatathammakul 
The Nation

 

 

Forensic police on Wednesday morning inspected the scene of a Prachuap Khiri Khan shophouse that collapsed on Tuesday evening, resulting in one death and two injuries to a family of five as they ate dinner.

The house was said to have once been at the centre of a construction lawsuit. 

 

Following the 7pm accident in Muang district, some 300 officials and rescue workers searched among the debris for the three trapped family members, after two unwounded daughters aged 14 and 29 were pulled out shortly after the collapse. 

 

The search and rescue mission ended before midnight with the discovery and removal of the dead body of the father Chairoj Thanyalertpattanakit, 54, while his wife Sirikan, 52, and daughter Thanyakan, 31, were found wounded and rushed to Prachuap Khiri Khan Hospital. 

 

Forensic officers at 9am checked concrete pillars and beams and the overall condition of the shophouse, which housed a dynamo motor repair service and car battery sales, on Phetch Kasem Road in Ban Bung (Moo 4). The building is now sealed from outsider access pending an investigation. 

 

Tambon Ao Noi Administrative Organisation vice president Nakhon Srisuthanan said his office would also probe this case as the party responsible for approving house construction. They would check if it had followed construction regulated regulations, and whether it had a proper permit or anything deviated from the permitted plan.

 

Prachuap Khiri Khan Governor Panlop Singhaseni visited the wounded victims at hospital at half past midnight.

The mother, Sirikan, recalled that she was setting up table for all family members to dine together when they heard a sound like “rain and hail stones hitting the roof” before the roof caved in and the whole house collapsed on them.

 

Still conscious after the collapse, she searched for her family members but could not find them, she said. Finding a cell-phone nearby and seeing many calls were made to it, she chose not to answer them in order to save oxygen and instead called her engineering graduate brother, who knew the house layout, to tell her exact location and lay still while awaiting rescue. 

 

“I told myself to keep calm and convinced myself that my kids had already fled the scene to safety,” she recalled.

 

Sirikan said the 13-year-old house had been at the centre of a lawsuit over a construction issue that stemmed from the construction contractor’s use of substandard metal materials. The family had planned to demolish it and then rebuild it in 1-2 years but the tragedy hit first.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30368670

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-05-01

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[metisdead]

An off topic trolling post has been removed. 

[impulse]

When I read about tragedies like this, I recall some of the threads over the years by expats thrilled that they don't have to put up with pesky building permits or nanny state inspections before they can occupy their newly built home.

 

Just like the occasional stories about people being electrocuted, alongside the threads by guys seeking advice on how they can clean up the rats' nests of wiring in their homes without getting even a rudimentary education in wiring.  The advice they get is good, but it often forgets that a rat's nest in the J-Box can be an indicator of deeply flawed wiring hidden behind the walls.

 

 

 

[RJRS1301]

RIP.

Now no breadwinner, no house, no compensation and probably no insurances. Another tragedy.

[SoSoCNX]

RIP

 

 Please forward URL to friends considering new construction in Thailand

[Prairieboy]

My wife has had two buildings built - never saw any building permits, no building inspectors or for that matter anyone who appeared to be qualified to do construction.  The puzzling aspect is that the building collapsed after 13 years - what finally triggered the collapse?

22 hours ago, webfact said:

house had had problems ever since it was built 13 years ago.

 

[atyclb]

brought to you by the country that has "nuclear aspirations"

[impulse]

On 5/1/2019 at 7:57 PM, Prairieboy said:

My wife has had two buildings built - never saw any building permits, no building inspectors or for that matter anyone who appeared to be qualified to do construction.  The puzzling aspect is that the building collapsed after 13 years - what finally triggered the collapse?

 

My bet... entropy. The tendency toward maximum randomness. 

 

Specifically, steel rusts, concrete flakes off, stuff sags.  With brand new materials, it may be strong enough.  Proper design accounts for the loss of strength after a few years in the tropical heat and humidity, coupled with the repetitive stresses of doors opening and closing, people climbing stairs, and heavy trucks going by. 

 

That's why they invented building codes.  So tradesman don't have to be civil engineers.  They don't have to know that, over 13 years, the steel will lose X% of its strength to rust, and the concrete will lose X%.  They just have to follow instructions.

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by impulse

[sammieuk1]

Pretty horrible thing to happen your safe haven crashing on you at your dinner table RIP ????