Earthquake Rescue Efforts Continue After Building Collapse Kills Eight, 100 Missing

[webfact]

Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

 

Bangkok felt the tremors of a powerful earthquake in Myanmar. A 30-storey skyscraper under construction in the Chatuchak district crumbled. Eight found dead, and approximately 100 workers remain missing.

 

Rescue operations continue with soldiers and sniffer dogs scouring the ruins. So far, 12 workers have been rescued and are receiving care at nearby hospitals. A makeshift centre now teems with anxious family members, clinging to hope.

 

Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul arrived at the scene, sharing the bleak news of the rising death toll. The families' anxiety is palpable, with people travelling from across Thailand to search for loved ones. Despite the devastation, there's a unified hope for more survivors.

 

Among the desperate, a woman persistently calls her husband, a foreman. His phone lies silent amid the rubble. Tears and anguish frame her face, yet she dials on, unwilling to accept the worst.

 

 

 

Another shares her story as she frantically seeks her parents. Both electricians, they worked across the tall building. She awaits their return, hoping beyond hope that they are safe, hidden among the debris.

 

The incident has sent a wave of sorrow and fear through the community. Families watch the rescue efforts unfold, hoping the nightmare will end with loved ones safe. The air is thick with anticipation, each passing hour testing their patience and resolve.

 

While uncertainties loom large, the united efforts of rescue teams offer a glimmer of hope. The search continues, candles flickering in the night, illuminating the shadows of the tragedy still unfolding.

 

Based on a story by Thai PBS World

 

-- 2025-03-29

 

 

[Tropicalevo]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

So far, 12 workers have been rescued and are receiving care at nearby hospitals.

 

That is good news.

I am amazed that anyone would survive that disaster.

The rescue workers are amazing.

They all deserve our respect.

Looking at that pile of rubble, just where does one start?

[factual monk]

Life = destiny + time 

[hotchilli]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Bangkok felt the tremors of a powerful earthquake in Myanmar. A 30-storey skyscraper under construction in the Chatuchak district crumbled. Eight found dead, and approximately 100 workers remain missing.

Devastating news to families of those missing

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

 

That is good news.

I am amazed that anyone would survive that disaster.

The rescue workers are amazing.

They all deserve our respect.

Looking at that pile of rubble, just where does one start?

The first block... then the next,

maybe even using help with search dogs and thermal imaging cameras.

[Peterphuket]

Having seen the photos of the mess left of it, I can hardly imagine that any bodies, alive or dead, are going to be found here.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The national govt and the BMA provided an EQ briefing on TV tonight at 7 pm in TH and EN language. Sounds like they're planning another tomorrow night same time.

 

Update on the collapsed State Audit Building as of tonight -- 9 people confirmed dead, 42 injured and rescued, and 78 still unaccounted for.

 

BKK rail lines -- all running as of Sat  EXCEPT the Pink and Yellow Lines, with those expected to have service restored by Monday.

 

The Sat briefing didnt specifically mention the EQ damage to BKK hospitals, but reports earlier in the day talked about damage to Lerdsin, Rajivithi and I believe one other. Not sure of their operational status at present.

 

The BMA also said there have been some 6,000 requests for inspections of buildings in BKK to assess potential EQ damage  Owners who want to request an inspection were asked to call the BMA on phone 1555.

 

Also, at least in the EN version, no mention of the roadway damage/buckling that occurred on Rama II road (the route from BKK to Hua Hin.)

 

 

[jcmj]

I believe there are many more people unaccounted for than they’re stating. Very sad for the families and anyone that may have survived and just can’t get out. I did see one person come out this afternoon so there is still some hope. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Obviously, they're dealing with a literal mountain (30+ stories worth) of concrete and steel rubble out there. And the longer the poor souls trapped there remain trapped, and not freed, the worse their odds get for surviving, assuming any of those unaccounted for might still actually be alive.

 

I wanna say, from past building collapses elsewhere, there have been cases where people actually were alive and rescued like a week later (but that assumed they had managed to somehow survive the original collapse and weren't crushed to death at the outset.

 

Tonight, one rescue team member said in TH on TV that they've only been able to assess, thus far, the top 4 meters of the rubble pile, which appears a whole lot higher/deeper than that.

 

At some point, it's going to become less of a rescue mission and more of a recovery one.

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-32485586

How long can survivors last under rubble?

The UN usually decides to call off search and rescue attempts between five and seven days after a disaster, once no-one has been found alive for a day or two. However, people have been known to be rescued alive beyond this point.

 

In May 2013 a woman was pulled from the ruins of a factory building in Bangladesh, 17 days after it collapsed. Workers heard her crying out "please save me" and used video and audio detection equipment to locate her exact position.

 

From the World Trade Center towers collapse on 9/11:

 

Genelle Guzman-McMillan was the last person rescued alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001, attacks, having been trapped for 27 hours.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genelle_Guzman-McMillan#:~:text=Genelle Guzman-McMillan is a,New York and New Jersey

[MikeandDow]

Well i wonder what The National disaster Prevention and Mitigation Committee are doing ??? its all in there plan

https://www.disaster.go.th/upload/download/file_attach/584115d64fcee.pdf

Whats the betting none of this plan was implemented

[steven100]

I was on site today and unfortunately looking at the debris and how it's landed it would be hard to survive that much concrete falling.  

 

very sad and tragic event indeed.   

[steven100]

8 hours ago, hotchilli said:

The first block... then the next,

maybe even using help with search dogs and thermal imaging cameras.

rescue dogs were there today. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

There's supposed to be another televised EQ briefing tonight.

 

Will be interesting to see how much change (or not) from last night's 1st full 24 hours after deaths and rescued counts.

 

How those tallies change for the 2nd daily update may signal where the outcome of this is going.

 

[ericbj]

Might be of interest:
https://www.verisk.com/blog/earthquakes-in-thailand-is-bangkok-at-risk/

 

Living for years in a designated moderate seismic zone, the Pyrenean region (where France and Spain are said to approach one another by about 1 cm per year), and involved in re-building a couple of partially collapsed ruins, I gave some attention to local building requirements, plus recommendations for improving seismic resistance of reinforced concrete.

 

The following remarks apply to house-building, but not to skyscrapers:

All newly built masonry walls in such a zone are required to have vertical steel-reinforced 'chaînages' [quoins] at all corners and horizontal steel-reinforced 'chaînages' at each floor level.  With horizontal and vertical reinforcing bars meeting, but smaller in diameter and much less densely placed than for true pillars and beams.

 

For better earthquake-resistance concrete beams are not simply placed on, or cast on, their supporting pillars.  The reinforcing bars of the different elements are fully tied together using angled pieces of bar, where each side of the angle has a length of 40x the bar's diameter.  Obviously a lot of extra work is required to increase seismic resistance of a structure.

 

See also:

https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_p-232_september2024.pdf

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

On 3/29/2025 at 7:43 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Update on the collapsed State Audit Building as of tonight -- 9 people confirmed dead, 42 injured and rescued, and 78 still unaccounted for.

 

 

Here's the video of Sunday night's government update re the State Audit building collapse and other EQ related issues -- first part in TH language, followed by a relentlessly rosy EN summary of the same starting at about the 19 minute time point.

 

 

 

Stats presented re the State Audit Building collapse:

 

--11 deaths (up 2 from the prior day), 76 persons still unaccounted for (down just 2 from the prior day). The spokeswoman said some signs of life were detected early Sunday in one area of the rubble pile.

 

[Curiously, though, Thai PBS also on Sunday had it own report saying the State Audit building death toll had risen to 13 with the discovery of three more bodies.]

https://world.thaipbs.or.th/detail/three-more-bodies-recovered-from-state-audit-office-rubble/57043

 

The BMA said the number of requests it had received for EQ-related building inspections had approx. doubled over the prior 24 hours, from about 6,000 as of Saturday to about 12,000 as of Sunday. But what to make of those numbers was left somewhat vague, as the EN summary said those requests involved 9,874 "cases addressed" (without explaining what that meant) involving more than 300 buildings across Bangkok.

 

Regarding transportation, only the Pink Line monorail remained closed as of Sunday, and the update said workers elsewhere are hoping to clear debris from a fallen crane impacting an area of the Din Daeng expressway by 5 a.m. Monday morning.

 

Regarding EQ assistance, the government said it has launched an emergency advance fund of 200 million baht to assist those who were injured and those whose accommodations were damaged, but the EN update didn't spell out the exact criteria to qualify for that aid or what the limits might be on an individual basis.

 

The Thai PBS report linked above had the following on a related matter:

 

"the Insurance Commission says that owners of condominium rooms or houses damaged by the earthquake on Friday can proceed with repairs, without having to be assessed by insurance companies first. They are, however, advised to take pictures of the damage first, as evidence to support compensation claims."

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Updates on Hospital Services in Bangkok, as of 30 March 2025

 

Resumed operations:

--Ramathibodi Hospital

--Vajira Hospital

 

To resume service on 31 March 2025:

--Siriraj Hospital

--King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital & the Thai Red Cross Society (special clinics and operations still available)

--Thammasat University Hospital

 

Outpatient services suspended from 31 March to 2 April 2025

--Rajavithi Hospital

 

https://www.facebook.com/thailandprd/posts/pfbid02zJuei2Jm6J9DeKMkPDtM1EQPAiuHWHp5oMiejJK2vTxnfE6Bq2BMrbz1b9NUg7sEl

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

First there was this little reported detail re the collapsed State Audit building:

 

"the 30-storey building slated to be the new headquarters of the State Audit Office in Chatuchak district of Bangkok. The State Audit Office contracted a consortium of Italian-Thai Development Plc and China Railway No.10 Engineering Group to construct the 2.1-billion-baht building.
 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2991159/7-day-deadline-for-probe-into-chinese-built-high-rise-collapse

 

And now there is this:

BMA acts against 4 Chinese for removing documents from SAO building

 

Police to charge Chinese nationals for removing 32 documents from collapsed SAO building, Jatujak district files complaint.

SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2025

 

Pol Maj Gen Nopasin Poolswat, Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, disclosed that on Saturday, March 29, 2025, four Chinese nationals were apprehended for illegally removing 32 files of documents from the rear of the collapsed State Audit Office (SAO) building, without permission.

...

On Sunday, March 30, at 3pm, a lawyer from the Chatuchak District Office filed a complaint against the five Chinese nationals for violating the public announcement by entering the building site and removing blueprints and other documents from the collapsed SAO building.

...

The four individuals were subcontractors working for a contractor under Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited.

 

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/general/40048090

 

And further from the Bangkok Post on this:

 

"Thailand's interior minister has demanded findings from a probe into the collapse of the Chinese-constructed State Audit Office building within seven days as four Chinese workers were questioned for snatching documents from the area.

...

The four men had work permits and worked for a company that was a part of the consortium of Italian-Thai Development, he said.

 

According to the deputy Bangkok police chief, the files contained various documents including information about contractors and sub-contractors. Police seized the documents and released the Chinese men after their interrogation.

 

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2991159/7-day-deadline-for-probe-into-chinese-built-high-rise-collapse

 

There are photos of the episode circulating in Thai social media circles, such as the following:

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's the Monday night government update (abbreviated EN version) on EQ recovery related matters:

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1XkRyuEdLg/

 

Here's the longer Thai language version with the same EN version following at the end:

 

 

 

In terms of details, things that were said, and weren't said in the EN update:

 

Collapsed State Audit Building:

 

What was said: as the critical 72-hours after mark passed for the building's collapse, the official death toll there rose by 1 more body, reaching a total of 12 thus far at the site.

 

What wasn't said: no update in the EN briefing on the number of still unaccounted for persons/bodies at the site, which had been reported the day before as 76. Does that mean they recovered no additional bodies and made no living rescues in the past 24 hours period?

 

Transportation:

 

The government spokeswoman said the Pink Line overhead rail line finally reopened for service, and fallen crane debris was removed from a portion of the Din Daeng Expressway, meaning that area reopened to traffic.

 

Building Inspections:

 

The government spokeswoman said thus far, only TWO of some 350 building in BMA territory that had been inspected for EQ damage had been declared temporarily uninhabitable.

 

In terms of inspections, she said the government had received more than 14,000 individual requests for EQ related building inspections, up about 2,000 from the prior day. As of Monday evening, she said only about 2,400 of those had not been "addressed."

 

She also clarified that the requests for inspections counts don't equate to numbers of buildings. What she meant was, for example, you might have requests from 100 different residents of ONE condo building, and each of those would count as a separate request, even though they all related to the same building.

 

The BMA also said they have launched a publicly available online platform for tracking inspections progress, as follows: