One week to see if SCB building safe
KORNKAMOL AKSORNDEJ,
CHANAPORN SATUN
THE NATION


Employees|of Siam Commercial Bank are allowed|to go into |the bank

ENGINEERING INSTITUTE CHECKING IF STEEL REINFORCEMENT INSIDE PILLARS DAMAGED

BANGKOK: -- IT WILL TAKE the Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT) about a week to determine the extent of fire damage to the main building of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB).

A fire raged through the building's 10th floor from late Saturday into early Sunday.

"The base of the 11th and the ceiling of the ninth floors have also been damaged," EIT president Professor Dr Suchatvee Suwansawat said yesterday.

He said that judging by the smell and water and smoke damage, the 11 lower floors of the building appeared unusable for the time being.

Dr Karoon Chandrangsu, who designed the 34-storey building, described it as strong and expressed confidence that it could be restored to normal condition.

"Its pillars and structure are secure," he said after inspecting the building with the EIT team yesterday.

Suchatvee said the team was making careful inspections and closely examining cracks on concrete pillars. "We need to determine whether the fire has affected the steel reinforcement inside them," he said.

The EIT has stepped in to look at the building in response to a request from the bank.

Suchatvee said EIT inspection was related to the safety of the building, which was constructed in 1995, and how to repair it only. It had nothing to do with how the fire took place.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Police Division 2 chief Maj-General Korkiat Wongsumet said the investigation into the fire was progressing significantly.

"We have already questioned more than 60 witnesses, including the four staff for the mosquito-spray service who came to work at the building that night," he said.

Korkiat said investigators were now waiting for the results of |forensic tests to get a clearer picture of what happened on Saturday night.

In a related development, Crime Suppression Division acting commander Pol Colonel Akaradej Pimolsri disclosed that police would need to request three or four more documents from SCB for its probe into the alleged embezzlement of Bt1.5 billion from the King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Latkrabang (KMITL) SCB bank accounts.

Initially, there was concern that the fire at the SCB headquarters could affect key evidence in the embezzlement case. However, SCB has made clear that damaged documents were not related to the KMITL case.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/One-week-to-see-if-SCB-building-safe-30253813.html


-- The Nation 2015-02-11

Enough time to plant the evidence of a billion and a half loan scandal documentation there all burnt and scorched.

Suchatvee said EIT inspection was related to the safety of the building, which was constructed in 1995, and how to repair it only.

Still no mention in this news report of anything about fire sprinklers.

That, combined with the 20-years-ago completion date of the building, kind of suggests it likely doesn't have any.

Perhaps this was an attempt to increase the bank's liquid-assets, all that water from the fire-brigade ?