Suphan Buri Fireworks Disaster Affects 500

[webfact]

FATAL ACCIDENT

Suphan Buri fireworks disaster affects 500

The Nation

SUPHAN BURI: -- The powerful fireworks explosion during the Chinese New Year celebration at Suphan Buri's Dragon Park on Tuesday night blasted all structures within four kilometres and turned the lives of more than 500 people upside down.

"All the houses in my neighbourhood are just rubble now," a resident said yesterday.

The fireworks were fired from a community close to Dragon Park, where more than 200 houses were damaged.

The grand public festival - broadcast live on nationwide TV - went terribly wrong when some fireworks went off, leaving four people dead and at least 74 injured.

The disaster area near Dragon Park and the city pillar shrine has been sealed off. A temporary shelter has been set up at Phra Si Rattana Maha That Temple, which was also hit, to accommodate the homeless victims.

"Police are investigating the cause of the explosion," Suphan Buri Governor Somsak Phureesisak said.

The men working on the fireworks show or the equipment could be responsible for the accident, he said.

Three fireworks workers were killed at the scene while a woman, Lamyong Pansakul, 52, succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.

Somsak said the Foundation of Suphan Buri's City Pillar Shrine has promised to provide full assistance to all victims.

Chao Phraya Yommaraj Hospital tended to 60 injured, of whom 44 have been discharged. Only one, a fireman named Thanit Klinkate, remained in intensive care.

At Suppamit Hospital, 14 victims were treated and nine of them were allowed to go home.

Banharn Silapa-archa, chief adviser of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, who founded Dragon Park, yesterday visited the patients at Suppamit Hospital and offered them Bt10,000 each.

Banharn, Tourism Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa and Chinese Ambassador Guan Mu were guests of honour at Dragon Park.

A local woman said she was watching TV at home when part of the wall suddenly collapsed on her and thick fumes began spreading all over.

"I couldn't see anything at all. So I made a real struggle to get out from under the wall and started running for my life," she said.

The scope of the devastation was massive. Some vehicles were just burnt shells, and their windshields were completely shattered into small pieces.

Somsak said that although the Chinese New Year celebrations at Dragon Park would continue till Sunday, there would be no more pyrotechnics.

"In fact, the organising committee planned more firework displays but we have already confiscated all the prepared fireworks," he said.

A source said 500-600 fireworks were seized and the explosive ordnance disposal team was now removing their fuses.

Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit said he received a report that the fireworks might have been etonated because the pipes used to shoot them were not set at the right angle.

He said he would instruct all provincial governments to be more careful in organising activities.

"But I'm not going to ban the use of fireworks because they add colour to celebrations," he said.

Major Songphon Iambonrit, formerly with the Army's Ordnance Department, also suspected that either defective launch cylinders or an inappropriate angle triggered the accident.

-- The Nation 2012-01-26

[FOODLOVER]

Ok, so we live in this neighborhood with apparently some very rich people. So anyways they decide to throw a huge fireworks show at midnight new years eve. No prior notice or anything. This was a professional show in the middle of the street. Lasted 20 minutes. OK, so if you have never been close to the base of an exploding fire works shell. Makes a howitzer sound like a hamster fart. So my point to the the wife was. THIS IS NOT SAFE! As me and the dogs are climbing from under the bed she tells me no problem, their rich. How that keeps my house from exploding is beyond me. These incidents are rare but occur! Why in the neighborhoods people!? RIP Innocents.

[NanLaew]

^ The perils of living in a hi-so, Thai-Chinese 'hood.

[FOODLOVER]

^ The perils of living in a hi-so, Thai-Chinese 'hood.

Sorry, sounded snooty.

[anterian]

" blasted all structures within four kilometres" is this media hype or for real? I grew up during the blitz in London, the V2 rocket had a one ton payload and a blast range of about 500 metres.

[boldfj]

I can't speak to the 4 kms blast range. However, I do know that windows were broken in Nasa Mall, which is more than 1 km away from the Dragon Park. Also, I live in Sam Chuk, about 30 kms away from the blast site, and we plainly heard the blast sound, and it was loud enough to make us jump up and wonder what the heck that was! So this must have been a quite powerful blast. Very sorry for the poor victims living in the neighborhood where the blast occurred, and for those four people that passed away.

[Morgo]

Sitting on the back porch late one evening, I happens to look up and see all these paper balloons floating across the rooftops, being kept aloft with a flame. Explaining to my wife that any one of the balloons could start a house or grass fire, I was told not to worry this happens every year at the local festival and there's never been a fire. I'm fairly sure if I let one of these balloons go in my home country, I would soon hear from the authorities.

[Payboy]

Banharn Silapa-archa, chief adviser of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, who founded Dragon Park

Just wondering why it isn't called a mutant dinosaur park.

[harrycallahan]

Within 4 kilometres of the blast is a circle of diameter 8 kilometres. I could believe it if a large fireworks factory blew up.

[sparebox2]

Defective Maid in China fireworks?

[Siripon]

In the last election Banharn lost 2 seats in Suphaburi province, more and more locals are aware of his grasping nature, resorts discouraged from opening near to 'his' Beung Chawat' , the alleged incident of an unused piece of land owned by him that had been used for wedding parties by various folks, but on driving past and seeing the tables and chairs being set up one day, he demanded they be taken away immediately, thus spoiling the party.

Banharn 'saved' Suphanburi during the floods at the expense of other provinces, some will say now that selfishness has come back to haunt him, though he and his family escaped unhurt.

[spidermike007]

Who is going to pay for all of these lost lives, lost homes, injuries, burn victims, etc? The rich fools who sponsored the event, in the middle of a town with predominately wooden houses? The city of Saphan Buri? The governor, who seems to have done little to alleviate the suffering of the people, other than to make some vague pronouncements about a police investigation. How was this allowed to happen? Why was it not pushed to the outskirts of town, where it would have been far safer? Why was the company who was hired so incompetent? Will they be held responsible? How much will the owner of that company have to pay the governor, or the mayor, of the police chief, to walk away scot free, while these poor folks are scarred for life with 3rd degree burns? Who is going to lose their jobs over this? I believe the Tambon chief, the mayor, the governor, the police chief, and other should be immediately fired, and replaced with people who have at least a tiny concern for human safety.

[ableguy]

Who is going to pay for all of these lost lives, lost homes, injuries, burn victims, etc? The rich fools who sponsored the event, in the middle of a town with predominately wooden houses? The city of Saphan Buri? The governor, who seems to have done little to alleviate the suffering of the people, other than to make some vague pronouncements about a police investigation. How was this allowed to happen? Why was it not pushed to the outskirts of town, where it would have been far safer? Why was the company who was hired so incompetent? Will they be held responsible? How much will the owner of that company have to pay the governor, or the mayor, of the police chief, to walk away scot free, while these poor folks are scarred for life with 3rd degree burns? Who is going to lose their jobs over this? I believe the Tambon chief, the mayor, the governor, the police chief, and other should be immediately fired, and replaced with people who have at least a tiny concern for human safety.

Nobody will pay , nobody will be punshed and there will be no conclusive investigation as this is Thailand. Sadly only money talks and your position in the pecking order.

[watcharacters]

Just another day in paradise.

[yieldman]

The fireworks were placed at Wat Phra Srirattana Mahathat, Google maps 14.479618,100.112132

Just to the south of the Wat is the densiy populated area where most of the fires broke out. This area was affected by floods 3 mnths ago.

500 meters to the west windows were broken. The monks living area (Kuti) shown in the photo is 50 meters away to the east. The crematorium also 50 meters away appears undamaged in photos.

[JohnAllan]

"Police are investigating the cause of the explosion." Most of us have seen the Thai approach to safety, even with such as fireworks. They might start with the premise of [un]imaginable stupidity!

[Jingjok]

This scale of blast damage from fireworks can be the result of only one thing: a bulk detonation of flash powder, the metal powder/perchlorate mix used in shell bursts, or in greater quantities in maroon shells (AKA ‘salute’ shells). Or maybe a whole case of still-coiled firecrackers detonating at once, but that’s less likely.

If it were me investigating, I’d look first for badly-designed mortar racks, where the tubes are too close together, with insufficient, or no, air gap to prevent just this sort of thing.

Anything about the ‘angles’ being wrong is rubbish.

If a rack loaded with all flash-powder salute shells experiences a certain type of failure in one shell – known as a prem, or explosion-in-mortar event, then, if there is insufficient space between the tubes, a bulk detonation is highly likely. This means ALL the shells in the rack explode at the same time – the detonation of the first communicating instantly with all the others. This is a highly unpleasant event, likely to kill anyone within a few metres of the explosion not wearing proper helmets and protective jackets.

Firework shells consist of a black powder lift charge, and a spherical payload containing the stars, a pyrotechnic delay element, and a bursting charge. As the shell ascends, the delay burns, reaching the burster as the shell nears maximum elevation, exploding the device into the familiar sphere of stars.

In a poor-quality shell, the delay can fail, igniting the burster immediately, causing the thing to explode in the mortar. With the gentler colour shells, and so long as the mortar is not rubbish, it ‘flowerpots’, going off like a firework mine: producing a spray of stars from the mortar itself. This can be scary, but rarely harmful.

But when you have salute shells with lots of flash powder (or maybe big shells with powerful flash bursters), no mortar can withstand the pressure, and you get a burst mortar, or worse, a bulk detonation. This is one reason why steel mortars are banned: cardboard or fibreglass units are preferred.

Flash powder shells, and anything else able to bulk-detonate, are classified in Europe as HazCat 1.1G, so need to be stored, transported, and handled as high explosives. The hassle of this means few fireworks companies bother using many of them.

But they are perfectly safe, if used properly; with knowledge, understanding, and the correct equipment.

… OK, so if you have never been close to the base of an exploding fire works shell. Makes a howitzer sound like a hamster fart. …

Ha Ha! Explosives are what I do - trust me on this - I’d take even a 12” shell: either the mortar lift charge or the shell itself, over a 155mm any day

Plus I’ve fired a lot of 120mm smoothbore tank rounds in my time. And they still scare me.

Defective Maid [sic] in China fireworks?

Sorry, I can’t let that go. You clearly have no experience of Chinese, or perhaps any other, professional fireworks. The Chinese invented the bloody things, and still make some fine products.

Sure, you can buy rubbish if you want to pay nothing for them, but in general, I have had no problem whatever with Chinese pyrotechnics, and I’ve fired many, many, thousands of the things.

The ‘It was because of a dangerous Chinese firework’ excuse is too often used to cover for ignorance, incompetence, or dangerous home-made or locally-made product.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Jingjok