Huge fire at apartment building on Sathorn, Bangkok, one confirmed dead

[jaywalker]

Still wonder why some people are eager to take a picture or whatever (as seen in the short video) of something tragic like that? Is it for her on-line collection or what? Just Unbelievable!

Those people taking photos of ugly situations have helped police solve murders, police brutality, and helped track down the Boston Marathon bombers. Anyway, people in Thailand hire professional photographers for funerals.

Yes. A picture and/or video says a thousand words.

This is 2016. I guess he should stick to AM radio for his news.

[swerver]

WOW!

Sad story for sure. There's usually an outside fire escape stairwell on both ends of buildings like this. Hope it wasn't blocked.

No need to hope, this is Thailand and you can bet your aching a@@ it for sure was blocked.

How do I know??? I live in Thailand for decades. Profession maintenance engineer.

I base this on an apartment I own in a 30-story Condo building in BKK (Bangna) which has an escape stairwell (all concrete nothing to burn) from each floor. This escape stairwell has a positive air pressure system which comes on automatic when fire alarm is activated. The door into the stairwell can ONLY be opened from the floor, not from inside the stairwell, and it is spring-loaded to shut the moment the door is let go when a person or persons enter the stairwell.

Get the answer yet??? If not you either are a newbie in Thailand or not very observant.

I find these doors locked with a brick or other object in the OPEN position.

Who does this??? Supervison lacking HOUSEKEEPING personnel, who else???

At my floor I remove the obstruction and see that that door by itself shuts closed 100%. So much for my floor.

What about the other floors??? Your bet is as good as my bet.

I report this violation of Fire Safety to the Condo "Management" which like 99% of Thais have the Mai Pin Rai syndrome.

I have decided under this condition I will not live in my apartment and live in my home at the golf course were I'm in control of the place I live in, instead of having to depend on locals with the Mai Pin Rai syndrome.

As Bernard Trink would say, "TIT".

LOL in LOS

[tukkytuktuk]

Videos of today's fire. RIP

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y3qyttKpn3Y

[dabhand]

The other really bad fire was at the First Hotel on Petchaburi Rd, about 20 years ago. Completely inadequate fire system and it burned for hours and a lot of people died.

Yes, some rather harrowing stories came out of that fire tragedy.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Investigators-Find-Few-Clues-on-Deadly-Blaze/id-bf6d1a704c00a34324541a95129119c5

[Bangkok Barry]

Doesn't look like it had a functioning sprinkler system does it?

Oh wait, how stupid of me. No need for a sprinkler system in Thailand's residential high rises, right?

The intensity of the fire and the heavy black smoke suggest a significant amount of combustible materials with an emphasis on plastics and other petrochemical based items. I suppose that in a country where functional sprinkler systems, water pumps, , fire doors an and all that expensive life safety stuff isn't necessary, the need to consider an emphasis on fire resistive and retardant materials is unimportant. Amazing Thailand.

You're wrong, this is a mandatory must to have a fire alarm system, fire water pumps, and

sprinklers system in all high rise buildings for many years now, it could be that he system

was not working due to the laziness and careless of the building's technical supervisors,

it also mandatory to have one a year fire drill where all systems are checked and verified,

god only knows what slack people has let all the above to laps and dysfunction.....

There is indeed a law that modern buildings must have a sprinkler system installed. However, there is no law that says it must be turned on. When the building which is now the Inter-Continental Hotel caught fire the day before it opened, due to an exploding air-conditioning unit I believe, people had to be rescued from the roof by helicopter, hanging on to the runners as it took them to the nearby roof of the police hospital. Meanwhile, the little 1950s Keystone Cops style fire trucks were useless above a few floors. Quite a drama I happened to catch as I was passing by. The BP has or had huge photos of the event in their corridors. Seems like nothing has changed. The fire-fighting equipment reminds us that Thailand is still very much a Third World country.

Edited February 5, 2016 by Bangkok Barry

[Thian]

Maybe this will speedup the usage of the 300 "new" firetrucks who are just standing on a parkinglot. My wife never heard that story before by the way.

But this is why i won't live in a condo and if i had to i would have a parachute plus gasmasks ready to use.

I was in this area today and traffic was soo busy that a firetruck could never go through in time.

[smedly]

The claim they put the fire out or brought it under control, looks to me more like it gutted the whole building and there was nothing they do about it, it eventually ran out of combustible material and burnt itself out - building destroyed no doubt and will have to be raised to the ground

[Benmart]

Doesn't look like it had a functioning sprinkler system does it?

Oh wait, how stupid of me. No need for a sprinkler system in Thailand's residential high rises, right?

The intensity of the fire and the heavy black smoke suggest a significant amount of combustible materials with an emphasis on plastics and other petrochemical based items. I suppose that in a country where functional sprinkler systems, water pumps, , fire doors an and all that expensive life safety stuff isn't necessary, the need to consider an emphasis on fire resistive and retardant materials is unimportant. Amazing Thailand.

Some good points, but heavy on speculation without first hand information about the building. I am not an experienced Fire-Marshal or Fire Warden.

My eight-story building has common area and in-room sprinklers, smoke detectors and alarms.. They are checked quarterly (I can't vouch for the credentials of those doing the checking"). The stairwells are clear, fire doors closed each night and the exit door at the bottom is not chained shut. A fire systems company does in house training for the cleaning, maintenance and service staff in the operation of the fire hoses and fire extinguishers.

The building I live in is 8 years old and has 24/7 security that actually stays awake and patrols the building an surrounding areas. I can only comment on where I live and what I have seen first hand. There are many places that are fire traps and I am blessed not to "have" to live in one of them.

RIP for those that have died and were injured.

[DGS1244]

The fire brigade cannot do any external rescues above 9 floors, the building apparently only has one means of escape staircase and the fire started by someone burning incense sticks for the Chinese new year. A disaster waiting to happen as many high rise buildings are.

[steven100]

I just hope they had fire insurance.

[Basil B]

Just wondering how many people on Thai Visa who rent Condo or homes, and have bought their own furniture, TV's ; clothes of course !,

have content insurance. To replace your valuables. Do they even have this type of insurance here ?

Yes...

I had.

[kannot]

Some really important reform needed here Hope all are ok from the FIre

Sorry no have to many other serious things on their plate. Subs bullet trains boats new cop guns more soldiers single gateway Facebook/Google censorship raiding seniors playing contract bridge. Right after we solve the drought problem we will work on this one.

And dont forget the tarting up of military barracks which has been happening a lot down by me at For Thanarat and nearby at the "incredible" 7 Kings display (sic joke)

[Basil B]

The other really bad fire was at the First Hotel on Petchaburi Rd, about 20 years ago. Completely inadequate fire system and it burned for hours and a lot of people died.

In Bangkok or Thailand???

Do not forget:

11 July 1997: The Royal Jomtien Resort Hotel fire in Pattaya, Chonburi resulted in 91 deaths and 53 injuries. Poor fire-preparedness and locked fire exits contributed to the number of deaths.

Nothing learned in 20 years.

The building manger has just put the names of all the Burmese and Cambodian employees in a hat, expect name of employee responsible to be named drawn soon.

[geisha]

I saw the huge billowing clouds of black smoke from Riverside, looked like a big fire from there, another tradegy.

[TechnikaIII]

Horrific

Most residents would have felt confident that such a modern looking building would have the necessary safety features, or if Thais, not even have given it a thought (along with their lack of need for seat belts)

Hoping for something to minimise loss of life. Sadly I can imagine more will perrish before the day is out, or the fire, whichever comes first.

(For ages I have been chewing over the possibility of buying a condo in Bangkok, but I am haunted by images of hopelessly tangled power cables throughout the city. ... fire ... )

[connda]

RIP to the victims and their families.

[DDbkh]

since when is 10 stories "high rise" ?

I understand anything under 9 is low rise. so I guess you can say 10 is high rise, but it seems like a height fire trucks should be able to reach.

One of the major problems in Thailand is the masses of cables and power lines which prevent the fire trucks getting close enough to the building. Apart from being a major eyesore these cables are a serious safety concern.

[swerver]

Doesn't look like it had a functioning sprinkler system does it?

Oh wait, how stupid of me. No need for a sprinkler system in Thailand's residential high rises, right?

The intensity of the fire and the heavy black smoke suggest a significant amount of combustible materials with an emphasis on plastics and other petrochemical based items. I suppose that in a country where functional sprinkler systems, water pumps, , fire doors an and all that expensive life safety stuff isn't necessary, the need to consider an emphasis on fire resistive and retardant materials is unimportant. Amazing Thailand.

The ferocity, duration and insistence of the fire reminds me from my days instructing firefighting NGL fires.

Very few people understand and know anything about Butane cooking gas in the 15-liter tanks you see in 99% of the homes in Thailand.

This Butane, same goes for Propane, Ethane and all the other NGL (Natural Gas Liquid).

Liquefied Gas expands at a rate of 225 times when pressure is released and the liquid form turns into the gaseous form.

So a 15 liter liquid tank produces 15 x 225 = 3375 liter gaseous form. This is why a 15-liter tank for cooking last for such a longtime.

The ONLY way you can stop a fire fed by liquefied gas; TURN OFF THE VALVE (close it). Easier said than done. If the fire is right at the bronze valve on the tank the fire will melt the bronze valve, (biggest nightmare of firefighters) then all you can do is let the fire burn itself out (all the liquid in the tank is finished).

I have tried over the years and finally given up to teach Thai people I have been in contact with (particularly females because they use the cooking gas).

High-rise building by Fire Safety rules and regulation must NOT have gas for cooking, all kitchen Hobs and Ovens MUST be electric.

Even the 30-story Condo apartment building I own an apartment in had a fire (luckily the sprinkler system took care of it) after everything was taking care of it was discovered the owner against fire safety rules) was cooking with Butane Tank Gas.

The fire was caused due to him cooking and then went to the Mall to do some shopping without turning off the cooking, so the pot/pan cooked dry and then the contents after a little while were so dry that they caught fire which in turn activated the fire alarm and the sprinkler system.

So much for living in LOS.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

If memory serves, from the various prior high-rise fires in Bangkok, the BMA did some years back begin requiring fire sprinklers in new high-rises, but they either didn't require them at all for older buildings built before a certain year, or extended a long retrofit period for those older buildings.

The upshot is, AFAIK, there are a lot of taller, older buildings around BKK that have never been retrofitted with fire sprinklers, even though their height makes it basically impossible for the Thai fire service with their current equipment and limitations to effectively fight fires in those kind of structures.

Sad for those who lost their lives and were injured in this latest fire. But the unfortunate reality is, these occur periodically in Bangkok and the BMA and fire officials never seem to do anything constructive in the wake of these incidents to prevent them from happening in the future. I have no doubt, it will be exactly the same in the wake of this fire as it has been for the prior ones.

[Surasak]

Problem is that with Thai traffic in Bangkok, it can take a very long time to get to most fires. This means the fire has a good foot hold,

already by the time the trucks get there. Hard problem to solve. Pray for small loss of life.

Until people are heavily fined for obstructing an emergancy vehicle showing its blues and twos, the problem of getting to an emergency situation will continue to be slow. How do you change the ME,ME attitude? I can dream I suppose.

[swerver]

Doesn't look like it had a functioning sprinkler system does it?

Oh wait, how stupid of me. No need for a sprinkler system in Thailand's residential high rises, right?

The intensity of the fire and the heavy black smoke suggest a significant amount of combustible materials with an emphasis on plastics and other petrochemical based items. I suppose that in a country where functional sprinkler systems, water pumps, , fire doors an and all that expensive life safety stuff isn't necessary, the need to consider an emphasis on fire resistive and retardant materials is unimportant. Amazing Thailand.

You're wrong, this is a mandatory must to have a fire alarm system, fire water pumps, and

sprinklers system in all high rise buildings for many years now, it could be that he system

was not working due to the laziness and careless of the building's technical supervisors,

it also mandatory to have one a year fire drill where all systems are checked and verified,

god only knows what slack people has let all the above to laps and dysfunction.....

There is indeed a law that modern buildings must have a sprinkler system installed. However, there is no law that says it must be turned on. When the building which is now the Inter-Continental Hotel caught fire the day before it opened, due to an exploding air-conditioning unit I believe, people had to be rescued from the roof by helicopter, hanging on to the runners as it took them to the nearby roof of the police hospital. Meanwhile, the little 1950s Keystone Cops style fire trucks were useless above a few floors. Quite a drama I happened to catch as I was passing by. The BP has or had huge photos of the event in their corridors. Seems like nothing has changed. The fire-fighting equipment reminds us that Thailand is still very much a Third World country.

Thailand has late model firefighting equipment (trucks).

BUT, it has no professional firefighting personnel 24/7 in a proper Fire Station.

Firefighters are policemen who double as firefighters when on duty at the police station.

Firefighting equipment (trucks) are scattered haphazardly around the police station in the open causing them to be dirty instead of gleaming spotless as fire trucks are in, we'll stay around the area, Japan.

Thailand has tried to establish Fire Stations manned by professional firefighters 24/7. But the police generals wouldn't have it, it would cut into their empire building. That was the end of professional Fire Station in Thailand.

Don't tell me Pattaya has a fire station, it was the beginning of a fire station, last time I drove by it I see there is a big "tourist attraction" building overshadowing the what was intended to be a fire station.

LOL in LOS.

[balo]

The latest news is that 3 people died in the fire .

[petedk]

My wife has just had a phone call to say that her close friend died in the fire. She was in fact the owner of the building.

I don't know much at the moment, but I am sure that the building must have been up to date with safety features.

We are in the process of building a similar building, so of course we are anxious to know what went wrong.

To those that called it a "seedy hotel", then you are very very wrong.

[Thian]

since when is 10 stories "high rise" ?

I understand anything under 9 is low rise. so I guess you can say 10 is high rise, but it seems like a height fire trucks should be able to reach.

One of the major problems in Thailand is the masses of cables and power lines which prevent the fire trucks getting close enough to the building. Apart from being a major eyesore these cables are a serious safety concern.

Don't they have those superlong laddertrucks here in BKK? They can extend the ladder and then turn over the wires i would think?

Some weeks ago i waited for a red trafficlight and noticed i was standing infront of the firebrigade building where their trucks were parked. They looked like old trucks from my homecountry, or maybe just the same models. I didn't see the truck with the ladder though but i guess they have one somewhere, no?

One day i slept in a hotel in the city at a high floor when during the night the firealarm went off. We stressed a lot but it was false alarm...Some drunk guys from the UK thought it was fun to push the alarmbutton.

I don't like high floors.

[sawadee1947]

Two killed and five others injured in the fire at the Sathorn tower

BANGKOK: -- The inferno at the 10-storey apartment building on Narathiwat Soi 18 killed two occupants and injured five others, the police confirmed late this afternoon.

Among the injured are rescue workers entering the burning building to help the trapped occupants.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/149724

-- Thai PBS 2016-02-05

2 dead now. This is bumming me out.

Many questions need to be asked, lessons learned, how can we prevent this in the future etc...

Will it ever happen?

Doubtful.

yeah, Thai authorities learn very quickly and take the right steps immediately......as you know...

[billd766]

Some really important reform needed here Hope all are ok from the FIre

Sorry no have to many other serious things on their plate. Subs bullet trains boats new cop guns more soldiers single gateway Facebook/Google censorship raiding seniors playing contract bridge. Right after we solve the drought problem we will work on this one.

Perhaps you should ask which party was in power at the time that the condo was built.

You may find that the army was not in power.

Perhaps they should look at the building plans and permits and who in the BMA signed them off.

[Buddumber]

Two killed and five others injured in the fire at the Sathorn tower

BANGKOK: -- The inferno at the 10-storey apartment building on Narathiwat Soi 18 killed two occupants and injured five others, the police confirmed late this afternoon.

Among the injured are rescue workers entering the burning building to help the trapped occupants.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/149724

-- Thai PBS 2016-02-05

2 dead now. This is bumming me out.

Many questions need to be asked, lessons learned, how can we prevent this in the future etc...

Will it ever happen?

Doubtful.

yeah, Thai authorities learn very quickly and take the right steps immediately......as you know...

if its like the air pollution monitoring and the dengue monitoring yes they do that. do something about it to make it different?, no that is NOT within the scope of thai government.

[gk10002000]

As most of you people know that have spent any time in Thai cities many of the streets are very haphazard and not very wide and they will stuff a condominium or apartment building almost anywhere with no consideration for easy road access, fire truck access, etc

[Howitzer]

2204/5 the building looks to be the one in the video with the grills etc.

https://goo.gl/maps/ik8c6jGqyv72

[wow64]

There was another fire last night same area heard the sirens going.. Looks like a house this time on the other side of Narathiwas..

Have not seen anything in the news..

Sent from my c64

Edited February 6, 2016 by wow64