One Burmese Dead, Four Seriously Poisoned By Generator Fumes

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One Burmese dead, four seriously poisoned by 'generator fumes'

Phuket Gazette

Police believe that fumes from this generator running all night in the enclosed office killed one Burmese worker and seriously poisoned four others. Photo: Kritsada Mueanhawong

PHUKET: -- One Burmese laborer is dead and four others are still in hospital after they spent the night guarding a construction site property, including a running generator in a closed room, police say.

“Burmese told us that the five workers were ordered to stay in the office to look after equipment because items were being stolen,” said Lt Col Yongyuth Krongmalai of the Phuket City Police.

“We believe the five were afraid the generator would be stolen, so they kept it in the office while it was running,” Col Yongyuth added.

According to the police report, the generator was running in a room with no air circulation, and the windows and doors were closed.

Police believe that a buildup of toxic fumes from the generator killed the man and seriously injured the four others.

The office is on a condominium construction site in Baan Kuku on Rassada-anusorn Road.

“The office was divided into two rooms. The body of the dead man was found in the small room where the generator was located, which was turned off by the time police arrived,” Col Yongyuth said.

The men weren’t discovered until other workers arrived on site at about 8am, said Eakkachai Polsongkram, one of the laborers who was present at the discovery.

“We arrived for work at about 8am to start levelling the land. The five men were still ‘asleep’ in the two rooms in the office when we came,” Mr Eakkachai told the Phuket Gazette.

“After awhile, they still had not come outside, so we went back to the office to check on them. That’s when we saw vomit on the floor and I called the foreman to come and check the situation,” he explained.

Police received a report of the incident at about 10am, and believe that the one of the men died shortly before their arrival.

“All four of the workers appear to be getting better, but one of them is still on life support,” an officer at Vachira Phuket Hospital told the Gazette today.

“We are waiting for the test results for the toxic fumes to be returned from the Toxicology Center in Bangkok, so we will know exactly what caused the accident,” the officer added.

Police have yet to confirm the identities all five Burmese men involved in the accident.

Staff at the Vachira morgue confirmed to the Gazette that no one has contacted the hospital to claim the bodies of any of the dead man.

Additional reporting by Irfarn Jamdukor

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...ticle19346.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-11-05

[pacovl46]

How can you even want to sleep in a room that's being filled with exhaust fumes by a running generator? How come they didn't know that exhaust fumes can kill you? I just don't get it. I guess the survivors learned an important lesson, unfortunately the hard way!

R.I.P

[EarthAlien]

"How come they didn't know that exhaust fumes can kill you?"

I suppose there are a stack of basic knowledge things that such uneducated people wouldn't have a clue about.

If they had know then certainly it couldnt have happened.

Fear & ignorance are terrible masters.

RIP to the victim.

[NowImEasy]

Such an incredibly sad story. I blame this on the "Myanmar" junta for keeping the Burmese people so subjugated that basic knowledge of the modern world is non existent.

[IsaanUSA]

Such an incredibly sad story. I blame this on the "Myanmar" junta for keeping the Burmese people so subjugated that basic knowledge of the modern world is non existent.

Silly. Blame it on building / construction safety practices.

[radiochaser]

It is amazing who does not know about danger from carbon monoxide fumes. I used to be with the California Army National Guard, 3rd of the 40th Infantry Division ( 3/40th). There were a lot of M-113 armored personnel carriers in the 3/40th.

During one weekend training drill it was very cold for the time of year and many of the people in the unit did not have sleeping bags. Five guys slept in one of the carriers. The built in heater apparently did not work. A "gasoline fueled" portable cook stove was used to heat the M-113 they were in. They were all dead in the morning!

Some of us think that one of them got up during the night and lit the cook stove for heat. We could not believe that all five agreed to use the cook stove for heat.