Fire Breaks Out At Burmese Embassy In Bangkok

[george]

Fire breaks out at Burmese Embassy in Bangkok

Visa section closed following the blaze

BANGKOK: -- The Burmese embassy in Bangkok closed its visa application section on Monday after a fire broke out in one of the compound's buildings, officials said.

A fire started on the second floor of a building used for embassy guests early Monday morning, destroying about 70 per cent of the house and prompting the embassy to close its visa section, police said.

"It was an accident," said Thai Police Major Thanyaboon Thonjalatwong. "There were no injuries, and we've ruled out sabotage."

The fire coincides with mounting confusion within the international aid community over whether Myanmar's ruling junta will follow up on commitments to grant more visas to aid workers seeking to enter the country to meet the desperate needs of some 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis, which slammed in to the country's central coast on May 2-3.

Burma's military supremo Senior General Than Shwe assured United Nations Secretary Gernal Ban Ki-moon on Friday that the regime would allow "all" foreign aid workers unhindered access to the country and disaster zones.

But there were few new details on visa procedures revealed at a pledging conference held in Rangoon on Sunday.

"We're still optimistic but we're struggling with lack of detail on the ground as to what this all means," said Sarah Ireland, regional director for Oxfam, one of many aid agencies trying to get more experts in to Burma.

With the embassy closed Monday, Ireland said they would have to wait till Tuesday to check on progress on their visa applications under consideration.

-- dpa 2008-05-26

[george]

Update: Fire damages Burma embassy

BANGKOK: -- Fire broke out early Monday and seriously damaged the top floor of the Burmese embassy on Sathorn Road, but there were no injuries, police officials said.

They said the fire, which occurred after sunrise, was brought under control within 30 minutes but that there was a significant amount of smoke.

The roof of the building collpased during the blaze, prompting officials at the embassy to move their cars out of the area.

"The blaze broke out on the top floor, in a room full of documents and filing cabinets," firefighter Niwat Jootawong told a reporter of the AFP news agency. "That floor is basically burnt down. There's also a little damage on the ground floor."

"It was an accident," said Pol Maj Thanyaboon Thonjalatwong. "There were no injuries, and we've ruled out sabotage."

The embassy closed its visa section.

The fire coincided with mounting confusion within the international aid community over whether the Burmese junta will follow up on commitments to grant more visas to aid workers seeking to enter the country to meet the desperate needs of some 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Earlier report:

(BangkokPost.com) - A building in the compound of the Burmese embassy on Sathorn Road caught fire on Monday morning, Bangkok Post reporters said.

Reporters said it appeared that an out-building was ablaze, at the height of the morning rush hour.

Fire reportedly swarmed the two-storey building, whose roof was made of wood, quickly. The building was used to keep documents.

After the building was on fire for about half an hour, its roof collapsed, prompting officials at the embassy to move their cars out of the area.

Firemen were able to control the flame shortly before 9am. Cause of fire was still unknown.

-- Bangkok Post 2008-05-26

[taxexile]

very timely.

that should delay visa processing for a week or so and keep the junta happy.

[Tony Clifton]

Convenient indeed

[plachon]

That was a mighty quick investigation by the Pol Major must say. He must be the one they normally have on farang suicide duty.

[jumnien]

Well, Bangkok is, after all, very junta-friendly. Even more so in the next few months.

[Scott]

The military is usually aggressive--not passive aggressive!

[Krungthep]

Gee, today when they were about to start issue visa´s to foreign aid workers. That´s just (bad) luck

And tomorrow the message will be that the visa section has to close down all week and next week they find that all the previous applications was lost in the fire so everyone has to apply agaian.

The embassy has been under a lot of pressure lately, if they issue visas they will get the bigwigs punishment and if they dont issue visas they will get the peoples punishment when/if things changes in Burma.

Maybe Than Shwe is already blaiming the Bangkok embassy for the delays?

[george]

Fire at Myanmar embassy destroys one floor of consular offices; no injuries reported

BANGKOK: -- An early morning fire at the Myanmar embassy during the Thai capital's rush hour disrupted traffic for several hours and destroyed the second floor of the Myanmar's embassy in consular offices Monday.

The blaze that engulfed the second floor of the two-storey building in the embassy compound on Sathorn

Road, was under control in 30 minutes. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

No one was injured in the incident as the fire broke out early in the morning before office hours, but the office completely destroyed.

Visa applicants queued at 7am awaiting the opening of the consular offices at 8am were set to have

a longer wait due to the embassy's closure. It is not known whether visa applicants passports and

documentation were destryoed in the fire.

One Myanmar national bystander said that when the blaze began the consular officials tried to douse it themselves, and that first fire engine did not arrive until an hour later.

-- TNA 2008-05-26

[Tywais]

A member has posted a video of it in this topic

[cmsally]

very timely.

that should delay visa processing for a week or so and keep the junta happy.

As the song says:

" You took the words right out of my mouth."

[seagull]

Fire at Myanmar embassy destroys one floor of consular offices; no injuries reported

BANGKOK: -- An early morning fire at the Myanmar embassy during the Thai capital's rush hour disrupted traffic for several hours and destroyed the second floor of the Myanmar's embassy in consular offices Monday.

The blaze that engulfed the second floor of the two-storey building in the embassy compound on Sathorn

Road, was under control in 30 minutes. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

No one was injured in the incident as the fire broke out early in the morning before office hours, but the office completely destroyed.

Visa applicants queued at 7am awaiting the opening of the consular offices at 8am were set to have

a longer wait due to the embassy's closure. It is not known whether visa applicants passports and

documentation were destryoed in the fire.

One Myanmar national bystander said that when the blaze began the consular officials tried to douse it themselves, and that first fire engine did not arrive until an hour later.

-- TNA 2008-05-26

an hour later ? I guessed that they rather it burned to the ground !

[TAWP]

The video shows a very large fire. Guess they tried to put it out using car fuel...

[Bagwan]

What? No mention of a short circuit? "It was an accident" does not explain the cause of the fire. Very convenient that the fire started in a paper store.

My level of cynicism may well meet world class standards - whatever they are.

[ThaiAdventure]

I'm sure it will come to light that a new chair (with its arms tied behind it's back and the plastic bag still over it's head-rest) spontaneously combusted

Lets hope none of those new chairs are in Vientiane.

It'll be interesting to see the price of flights to Lao in the next week

Edited May 26, 2008 by ThaiAdventure

[Zolt]

Saw the smoke from my place on Monday - I was actually awakened by the fire truck sounding frantically to make way through the morning traffic just down from my window. I hope some other cars were able to get there, because there's no way that truck could have made it through the jam up to sathorn in less than 40, 50 minutes.

It's funny my girlfriend asked me to turn on the TV to see if the fire was in the news already. I told her there's no way just a small fire would make the news, turns out it eventually did...

It looks like the Myanmar junta is following the little North Korean (or is that Iranian) book on how to apparently comply with UN demands while taking to steps back and delaying them by every means possible.