Huge fire at TV screen recycle plant in Samut Prakarn

[webfact]

Huge fire at TV screen recycle plant in Samut Prakarn



SAMUT PRAKARN: -- A fire broke out in a television screen recycle plant in Samut Prakarn province yesterday causing an estimated 20 million baht in damages.

Authorities suspect an electrical short circuit as the cause.

The fire started at noon in a warehouse used to store recycled material such as plastics and electrical wiring of RGB Digital Technology in Samut Prakarn municipality.

It quickly spread to adjacent warehouses by strong winds which blew the conflagration outward.

Twenty fire-engines were engaged and firefighters took more than one hour to bring the blaze under control.

Warehouse owner Sruang Sae Ngor said that he had leased the property to the company to carry out recycling on disused television sets and electrical appliances for the past several years.

He related that the fire broke out during the afternoon lunch break and was most probably caused by one of the staff causing an electrical short when plugging into an electrical outlet.

The fire then spread quickly to the flammable recycled materials and workers were seen running out of the warehouses to escape the smoke and flames.

Two minor injuries were suffered and the total damages are estimated to be in excess of 20 million baht.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/huge-fire-at-tv-screen-recycle-plant-in-samut-prakarn


-- Thai PBS 2015-10-28

[Ulic]

Well, I guess that is one way to recycle the screens.

[zaphod reborn]

It's amazing how many manufacturing warehouses go up in flames due to electrical shorts in Thailand. I realize that the electrical work is as shoddy as it gets, but you would think that the insurers, and all of these fires result in insurance claims, would finally catch on and insert a special requirement for Thailand that there has to be a qualified electrical inspection of the warehouse prior to the policy binder being issued.

[Faranginthai]

The owner wins....insurance claim probably greater than market resale value, and/or, no need to comply with costly disposal [presuming disposal would have followed legal disposal compliance dictates for recycled electrical parts].

[Thai at Heart]

It's amazing how many manufacturing warehouses go up in flames due to electrical shorts in Thailand. I realize that the electrical work is as shoddy as it gets, but you would think that the insurers, and all of these fires result in insurance claims, would finally catch on and insert a special requirement for Thailand that there has to be a qualified electrical inspection of the warehouse prior to the policy binder being issued.

Particularly on or around the start and end of financial year.....

[worgeordie]

Thats the second big fire in Sumut Prakarn,in the last few days,

the other at a leather factory,faulty wires or arsonist

regards worgeordie

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I'm kind of getting the feeling Samut Prakan is a kind of dumping group for Bangkok and other parts of Thailand.

Recall the repeated large garbage dump/landfill fires there. There have been a number of recycling/disposal facility fires like the one reported here.

And there was the famous radiologic hazard incident in Samut Prakan in 2000 where scrapyard workers cracked up a radioactive device, exposing themselves and others nearby, and leading to some deaths and radiation burns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samut_Prakan_radiation_accident

[springheeled jack]

another costly fire in samut prakarn it really is getting to be a habit this is the 3rd in the last 6 months all apparently due to faulty electrical wiring short circuits etc very expensive for the insurers I would say .most insurance companies have an expert on hand to do the business.

[sandrabbit]

zaphod reborn, on 28 Oct 2015 - 16:53, said:zaphod reborn, on 28 Oct 2015 - 16:53, said:

It's amazing how many manufacturing warehouses go up in flames due to electrical shorts in Thailand. I realize that the electrical work is as shoddy as it gets, but you would think that the insurers, and all of these fires result in insurance claims, would finally catch on and insert a special requirement for Thailand that there has to be a qualified electrical inspection of the warehouse prior to the policy binder being issued.

They are cathode ray tubes, I worked for SONY in the 80's manufacturing them. They don't catch fire, the polystyrene holding them will but it burns very quickly. They are very hard to recycle as the glass is leaded, to stop you being hit by x-rays so it is very specialist recycling because if you just melt it you get lead fumes . The front panel, the bit you look at is at least 20mm thick and full of lead to stop you being x rayed. A high voltage in a vacuum, above 25KV (25,000) volts starts giving off x-rays and the later large screen high brightness tubes would have an anode voltage in excess or around 45KV so they were similar to low powered industrial x-ray machines I had worked on previously in the steel industry. Also the front panel is full of phosphorous which would emit light when hit by the beam from the electron gun depending how it was coated, for the different colours.

I presume they are trying to recycle the metals as the electron gun(s), depending on manufacturer, were expensive alloys and the aperture grill plus support frame were also light weight alloys. Sony had huge problems with disposing of broken tubes because it was almost impossible to recycle the leaded glass in the UK in the late 80's so I hate to imagine what happens here.

Edited October 28, 2015 by sandrabbit