Earthquake Rocks Bangkok: Building Collapses with 40 people inside

[alex8912]

57 minutes ago, Don Giovanni said:

Any condo/apartment owners/renters living in BKK, a word of advice - get out now!

 

There is picture/video evidence of structural damage to tall buildings throughout Bangkok all over Thai social media.

 

No high-rise building is safe from collapse there now, imo.

 

Come to Japan. Our tall buildings are designed to be earthquake resistant - they sway when the quakes hit, they don't collapse like a clumsy deck of cards..

The Don.

One non completed building in BKK collapsed. Stop your completely immature fear mongering. Japan has earthquakes almost every day you FOOL!!

[RUSirius]

8 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

Asean Now can only put out information/news that it is provided with, what else do you expect the site to do?

Well, it claims to be media and is part of a conglomerate with Thaiger news under it as well. Jus sayin

[richard_smith237]

3 minutes ago, Chongalulu said:

So will you too eschew travelling on the roads which statistically is orders of magnitude more dangerous than staying in a high building? Try thinking.... 

 

To be  fair, I was already anxious enough navigating Rama II Road beneath the maze of ongoing overpass construction. When news of the earthquake broke, I fully expected to read headlines reporting that kilometres of the structure had come crashing down.

 

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. It seems the infrastructure, despite appearances, is structurally sound. The issues we've seen in the past have largely stemmed not from design flaws but from isolated instances of catastrophic human error - instances where major equipment failures during construction have caused localised problems.

 

As for the stability of Bangkok’s larger buildings, while it’s true there is a fair amount of anxiety among residents, this event has demonstrated just how well these structures have performed.

 

The 7.7Mw Magnitude Earthquake in Myanmar delivered an effective magnitude of around 4–5 Mw within Bangkok, and yet the buildings remained resilient. Superficial damage, such as cracked tiles and plaster, is certainly widespread but could also be expected, ultimately this is cosmetic. It may look unpleasant, but it does not indicate structural failure.

 

Had Thailand’s building standards been as compromised by corruption as some critics claim, today's conversation would be a very different and tragic one.

 

That being said, it is still essential that buildings undergo thorough inspections using specialised techniques, such as Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) testing, to ensure that no hidden damage to their structural integrity has occurred beneath the surface.

 

With the exception of one building still under construction, I believe it’s fair to say, well done, Thailand. Given Bangkok's geological setting, this could have been far worse.

[Don Giovanni]

3 minutes ago, RUSirius said:

I envy thainess

 

The Don.

[Liverpool Lou]

13 hours ago, MikeandDow said:

This building was built by Chinese construction company .. Guess who was their Thai Nominee..... Thaskin

It was being built by Italian-Thai.

[RUSirius]

19 minutes ago, Chongalulu said:

So will you too eschew travelling on the roads which statistically is orders of magnitude more dangerous than staying in a high building? Try thinking.... 

 

Not just present in a high building (any building?), but the absolutely random occurrence of while it experiences a quake - in Thailand 🤯 Mental

[Liverpool Lou]

13 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

How the building was made and by whom 

Co-built.  Partnered with Ital-Thai.

[Moonlover]

2 hours ago, This Guy said:

Yeah, like WTC, 3 buildings collapsed because of their superior construction eh?
This one which collapsed in BKK was not completed and I'd hazard a guess that the support walls and even the main columns were not yet fully cured on the upper levels.
Without the walls it could cave like a house of cards. But hey, you just go on with your Thai bashing.

Thank you @This Guy. Someone who speaks a bit of common sense at last.

[richard_smith237]

35 minutes ago, RUSirius said:

Guess we won't be having a beer together on soi 4 then 😂

 

My wife works on 36fl.

 

Coming down the stairs she said many were totally overwhelmed, crying, frozen. Those people gonna die and or cause chaos. She kept some calmed, moving down.

 

Many in this world simply lack any life skills, mindset to confront emergencies or even change. Funny because rural Thai maybe not so clever but tough.

 

I can well imagine the fear - much of it amplified by a snowballing hysteria, the fear of the unknown, and the haunting images of catastrophic events such as the collapse of the Twin Towers.

 

In such situations, I believe it is impossible for even the calmest and most rational minds to remain entirely unaffected. Those naturally more anxious could easily be pushed to the brink, becoming overwhelmed by worry and uncertainty.

 

Personally, after an initial moment of disorientation - a brief sensation of vertigo, I noticed the light fixtures gently swaying, and I immediately understood the cause.

 

Yet, even with that awareness, the unsettling question arose: how severe is this going to get? and will the house hold up? .....   I can only imagine how this same feeling would be magnified in a high-rise office tower, where the sway is more pronounced, and the panic of mass evacuation down thirty or more flights of emergency stairs creates a wave of shared anxiety, feeding off itself with every passing second.

 

 

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

6 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

The 7.7Mw Magnitude Earthquake in Myanmar delivered an effective magnitude of around 4–5 Mw within Bangkok, and yet the buildings remained resilient. Superficial damage, such as cracked tiles and plaster, is certainly widespread but could also be expected, ultimately this is cosmetic. It may look unpleasant, but it does not indicate structural failure.

 

Some major hotels in Bangkok you cannot any longer close doors etc. indicating the damage is far from just cosmetic, i.e. the building has actually shifted.

 

Also, structural engineers in Thailand? How many are actually competent to assess earthquake/tremor damage, and how many will sign off for a 'fee', or will sign off because they are scared of the boss?

 

A lot more to come from this I should think and a lot more problems ahead.

[fondue zoo]

1 minute ago, alex8912 said:

Because Japan has them everyday you idiot! I lived there for 2 years as well and during a big one in Hokkaido tons of small buildings collapsed. So does a fool like you go on Japan Visa Forum after every earthquake there and tell people they are crazy to live in low rise apartment buildings?? 

 

Japanese engineering for earthquake resilience is impressive.

 

 

[ronnie50]

14 hours ago, CHdiver said:

 

I guess Thailand will have no problem with just one building. Very different to the quake you mentioned from Turkey. There many cities have been destroied. Totally different scale of operation in that case.

Yeah? So how many people have they pulled out alive? I'm watching Ch3 (midday Saturday) and they show a worker who is alive and moving his head and chest around midway up the rubble in bright sunshine. All I've seen is a video of the guy and then the same video from last night where they pulled out one injured worker to great applause. And today?

[RUSirius]

I have a serious question for civil engineers and or construction managers.

 

Looking at the building that fell. Given how far along in the construction process (or not) - is it possible that it still did not have some strength built into it and that aided in it's fall? The skeleton/ structure looks complete by my eye. Usually the sides are cheap brick, cement nothing structural.

[Liverpool Lou]

13 hours ago, Denim said:

The financial repucutions of this disaster are going to be huge and last for many months. Anyone thinking of buying a high rise condo will now have second thoughts. The valuable tourist influx will take a bad hit. Lots of people living in older condos that now have cracks will probably want to move out. The list goes on and on and it will probably be the poorer members of society that are worst effected. 

"Anyone thinking of buying a high rise condo will now have second thoughts".

Why?  Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of buildings in Thailand are all still standing, one, under construction, and only one collapsed.

 

"The list goes on and on..."

No it doesn't.  What "list"?

[ronnie50]

15 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

If an earthquake of 1000km away can bring this kind of damage, you can question the quality of the building constructions.. Suppose it happened in Chiang Mai or Kanchanaburi.. How much damage could have been done. I hope that people will get safe rescued under the debris with the most urgency, even they are Myanmar.. Nature has powers that nobody can control, just a proof of it

The AP reported yesterday with some illustrations of the fault line that the Myanmar earthquake was sitting on. It exstends down through Myanmar into the Andaman Sea - so much closer to Bangkok underwater. 

[ElwoodP]

Several flames removed.

[Patong2021]

17 minutes ago, RUSirius said:

Well, it claims to be media and is part of a conglomerate with Thaiger news under it as well. Jus sayin

Thaiger News is not a journalism entity and does not claim to be.They are  upfront and transparent on this.  It uses technology to  combine information from multiple information sources and then presents  the compiled product. The "news" is intended to anchor commercial offerings such as insurance, real estate listings, etc.

[Mr Meeseeks]

2 minutes ago, RUSirius said:

I have a serious question for civil engineers and or construction managers.

 

Looking at the building that fell. Given how far along in the construction process (or not) - is it possible that it still did not have some strength built into it and that aided in it's fall? The skeleton/ structure looks complete by my eye. Usually the sides are cheap brick, cement nothing structural.

 

If you read the article link posted earlier in this thread, the Chinese company explains that they were using new technologies to construct faster and more efficiently.

 

It may have been the case that this contributed to the incident, whereas a building constructed to tried and trusted methods would not have collapsed.

 

I don't have faith in any of the investigation processes here so I won't hold my breath,

 

 

[RUSirius]

3 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Also, structural engineers in Thailand? How many are actually competent to assess earthquake/tremor damage

 

My thoughts immediately after the quake. Gonna take years to inspect.

 

200 buildings given ok by dawn. That was an eye roller for me

 

I sent thousands of kids on to best universities here and abroad. I could count the civil engineers on one hand. Architects perhaps a dozen as I can recall

 

Wife tells me online reports: bayoke, elephant bldgs and Posideon all 👍 ok.

[alex8912]

2 minutes ago, fondue zoo said:

 

Japanese engineering for earthquake resilience is impressive.

 

 

It HAS to be. But their construction of slightly older buildings is not good at all and they collapse a lot after earthquakes. Millions and millions of Japanese live in older buildings.  I wouldn't want to live near a nuclear plant in Japan. They are also AT or right near the epicenters of quakes , not 1000 kilometers away. I lived there 2 years and I saw MAJOR damage. 

[RUSirius]

4 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

"Anyone thinking of buying a high rise condo will now have second thoughts".

Why?  Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of buildings in Thailand are all still standing, one, under construction, and only one collapsed.

 

"The list goes on and on..."

No it doesn't.  What "list"?

 

Because standing is about the lowest bar imaginable. Any serious damage and the next quake, even settling will ruin the building. Potential collapse. Are you for real?

[Mr Meeseeks]

1 minute ago, RUSirius said:

 

My thoughts immediately after the quake. Gonna take years to inspect.

 

200 buildings given ok by dawn. That was an eye roller for me

 

I sent thousands of kids on to best universities here and abroad. I could count the civil engineers on one hand. Architects perhaps a dozen as I can recall

 

Wife tells me online reports: bayoke, elephant bldgs and Posideon all 👍 ok.

 

Everything is ok until it isn't. 

 

Thailand in a nutshell. 

[hotsun]

3 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

It HAS to be. But their construction of slightly older buildings is not good at all and they collapse a lot after earthquakes. Millions and millions of Japanese live in older buildings.  I wouldn't want to live near a nuclear plant in Japan. They are also AT or right near the epicenters of quakes , not 1000 kilometers away. I lived there 2 years and I saw MAJOR damage. 

Comparing japan to thailand is crazy though. Thailands main concern is flooding and they cant even figure out how to handle THAT

[alex8912]

11 minutes ago, Don Giovanni said:

@alex8912 Read what I said above ^^^^ I said high rise you muppet! 

 

The Don.

Let us all check in on Don after the next 8.7 quake in Japan. I mean Bob. 

[fondue zoo]

8 minutes ago, RUSirius said:

I have a serious question for civil engineers and or construction managers.

 

Looking at the building that fell. Given how far along in the construction process (or not) - is it possible that it still did not have some strength built into it and that aided in it's fall? The skeleton/ structure looks complete by my eye. Usually the sides are cheap brick, cement nothing structural.

 

 

I read an engineers comment saying that as it appears to collapse in on itself, it may have been caused by the the piles not being deep enough into bedrock. Any clay would have liquefied and foundations collapsed.  

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

2 minutes ago, RUSirius said:

My thoughts immediately after the quake. Gonna take years to inspect.

 

200 buildings given ok by dawn. That was an eye roller for me

 

Yeh, likely inspected by the security guy from the hut at the entrance to the building. 

[Liverpool Lou]

1 minute ago, RUSirius said:

 

Because standing is about the lowest bar imaginable. Any serious damage and the next quake, even settling will ruin the building. Potential collapse. Are you for real?

Sure am, not sure about you, though, with your over-dramatic fear-mongering and Thai-bashing.

[ronnie50]

So it was a joint project with Ital-Thai Construction and China Railway Construction number 10. 

Anyone remember this?

https://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/calamity/2024/08/26/tunnel-collapse-while-constructing-wall-at-high-speed-rail-project-in-korat/#google_vignette 

 

I think we all know if this building collapse happened in China the CEOs would have already been claiming refugee status in the UK or USA.

 

So what's happening here? The mayor holds a press conference and said 169 buildings had structural cracks - oh, but only buildings under construction in Bangkok, he said. All the others (completed offices and condos) are safe. Well the videos and photos now available on line say otherwise. 

[hankypankee]

1 minute ago, hotsun said:

Hes the perfect troll. I have to hand it to him

Perfect in what way? Consistently pathetic? There is something to be said for consistency I guess. 

[RUSirius]

Just now, Liverpool Lou said:

Sure am, not sure about you, though, with your over-dramatic fear-mongering and Thai-bashing.

 

Thai bashing?

 

Maybe you ought to scroll up where I'd just commended them on their solidarity as a people and nation.

 

We'll send the short bus round for you. What was the address again? 4th floor, shophouse on Pattaya soi 5 wasn't it?