17 schoolgirls dead in fire at boarding school in Chiang Rai

[candels]

2 Bits:

Probably these schools are fine as they are. A wood, inexpensive school is appropriate.

However, you need an escape door on every floor on several sides.

Anyone disagree that would be enough?

Not locking the ones available from the outside would also help prevent loss of life.

Exactly. There seems nothing wrong here with the school or anything "Thailand is doing".

It's just a tragedy that the kids were locked inside. If the door wasn't locked, no tragedy.

Weighing the costs (economic, practical) of upgrading all the schools to "European standards" probably makes it unrealistic anyway in Thailand (besides being besides the point, because the issue was a locked door). This could obviously have happened even if the schools were "European schools" with a locked door.

You also have to consider the potential negatives -- kids getting out and what can happen to them -- if they didn't lock them in -- across the country, which might exceed the negative of 17 dead (obviously not to treat the tragedy lightly, but if you really want to consider the problem), etc etc. Won't diatribe, but you can imagine

[aneliane]

Could it be the new Smart Meters they are sneakily installing especially on communality places who cannot say no?

[sirocco]

Of course, Bluespunk 73, anything can be avoided.

But I wanted to understand, too, that this can happen in countries like France.

And, unfortunately, despite the safety measures such as smoke detectors, sometimes nursing homes or hospital wings burn.

Far from me to defend the safety and hygiene standards in Thailand, there is none.

But all this is very sad. And I do not like the controversy over a dramatic information.

[Dario]

"Primary inspection revealed that so many lives were perished because the dormitory was locked from outside, thus trapping the victims inside."

How vicious! The person who locked the dormitory should get prison for live without parole.

My adorable little daughter will be seven years old on June 15. Tears come in my eyes when I think she could be among them ...

Edited May 23, 2016 by Dario

[eggers]

Horrendous tragedy that so many young lives have been lost, likely due to lack of smoke alarms or alarms not functioning.

Alarms would have avoided this tragedy or at least mitigated the deadly losses.

The Gov't needs to take action to have working smoke alarms installed in all public buildings & regularly checked by fire depts throughout Thailand. No excuses.

[akirasan]

Those who worked at schools. Can you explain the need for locking doors from the outside?

Do the kids / people go out after hours? Do they let in strangers? How common is burglary?

Theft/Kidnapping/Rape/Some random drunk guy falling asleep inside

I wouldn't say it's common but they are paranoid about that at least. Same in my gfs sleepy village. Locks the door every night. I asked if anyone had ever had a break in there "not yet".

I also noticed her school has cctv but no smoke alarms.

[Mystified]

What a waste and easy to prevent or at least give warning for about $15 I hope the powers that be learn something

[nakhonandy]

"Primary inspection revealed that so many lives were perished because the dormitory was locked from outside, thus trapping the victims inside."

How vicious! The person who locked the dormitory should get prison for live without parole.

My adorable little daughter will be seven years old on June 15. Tears come in my eyes when I think she could be among them ...

I would think the person that locked the doors is some lowly security guard.

The people in administration that ordered him/them to lock the doors should be prosecuted.

What a tragic, avoidable waste of young lives.

[BuddhistVirus]

Heartiest condolences to the parents, relatives and friends of the victims.

Rest in peace little angels and may the injured get well soon.

[wabothai]

This is time for mourning and not for discussion about god and for pointing fingers.

[TKDfella]

I can't imagine the cries for help and agony as flames engulfed the dorm. R.I.P. and my heart goes out the families.

[kannot]

I pray to God for them young souls, Amen

God is almighty, isn't he? So he let them die then, did he? Your god apparently thought it was a good idea to burn little girls alive.

Only small-minded people resort to finding God as a scapegoat.

Only small minded people " believe" in god but thats not the subject of this thread

[kannot]

I can't imagine the cries for help and agony as flames engulfed the dorm. R.I.P. and my heart goes out the families.

Probably died of asphyxiation first....not that its much of a relief

[losername]

Doors locked from the outside...criminal negligence or manslaughter?

Can't believe how stupid people are put in positions of managing others...

Damn PM talks about critical thinking skills for kids...too bad adults in this society lack that skill...not only school administrators be held responsible but gov fire inspectors whose job is for this to never happen....

Really hard to respect a society when establishments and authorized people are so ignorant....

Why are you blaming this PM? Why not put the blame on past administrations where it belongs.

He isn't. He is commenting on a recent statement the PM made. He clearly suggests others who should be held responsible but not the PM.

[Aussieroaming]

RIP, what a tragedy

[ChrisKC]

There are short cuts in all levels of Thai Society. There are short cuts at all levels of Officialdom. There is little value attached to the sanctity of life.

17 children dead: RIP you poor things

[kannot]

Doors locked from the outside...criminal negligence or manslaughter?

Can't believe how stupid people are put in positions of managing others...

Damn PM talks about critical thinking skills for kids...too bad adults in this society lack that skill...not only school administrators be held responsible but gov fire inspectors whose job is for this to never happen....

Really hard to respect a society when establishments and authorized people are so ignorant....

Guess the amulets didnt work, of course no harm in it is there? let people believe what they want, common sense and reason wouldnt let this happen, decent education, the ability to think and reason through a problem would, that and some foresight.

It aint going to happen until someone breaks the mould, lets go of the "beliefs" and starts to reason, we dont have all the answers but they are coming , slowly and surely, unlike beliefs which do have all the answers.

I employ some Hilltribe folk, theyre a good bunch, hard working, not too bright ,Thais will look down on them although of course form the hills they should be looking "up"............ but we're working on it.

[trainman34014]

Who is going to be incarcerated for this terrible catastrophe?

No one ! All manner of committee's, investigations, 'probings' etc, together with threats of 'severe punishment' will follow but as time passes it will all be forgotten and nobody will be blamed for this 'accident', Everyone involved will scream 'Not my fault' and point down to the next level of poor pleb just following orders on 300 Baht per day. Nobody in a management position will ever be brought to justice, as to use the words of The Big Pumpkin himself....''We must not be too hard on them ''. These were the words he spoke after bent Immigration staff at border checkpoints let in the bombers of the Bangkok shrine.

RIP all those tragically lost and wishes for a speedy recovery to those injured.

[al007]

My wife bless her says I worry too much, why did I need to buy fire extinguishers last week, why do I make our guard dog sleep where we can get her if there is a problem

I am also told I think too much, and have a plan to get out of our house in the event of fire, we also have a well discussed plan on how to get someone to hospital 24KMs away in the middle of the night

May god bless the families and victims of the fire

There must be well rehearsed plans in the event of an emergency

[tuanku]

Primary inspection revealed that so many lives were perished because the dormitory was locked from outside, thus trapping the victims inside.

If this is true, the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the operators of the school.

They may have been trying, in difficult circumstances to educate for free children who would otherwise not get an education at all, but that does not absolve them from a duty of care which includes making sure that escape from a dormitory is possible and that there is some competent adult supervision to take charge, regardless of the cause of the fire or the contributory factors to the deaths.

Unfortunately little will probably change as a result of this tragedy.

[daveAustin]

Horrendous. Thoughts with the parents.

[daveAustin]

In God's care now.

How horrible for god to let it happen in the first place. After all he is all powerful and omnipresent, right? So why didn't he stop it? Maybe because he doesn't exist. Perhaps they are in the care of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Back to reality - horrible event. RIP little ones.

If there is one, he is not in this universe and can't affect anything within it.

Edited May 23, 2016 by daveAustin

[Autonuaq]

Awful event

Poor children. How do these things happen?

Th Guardian (UK):

"Thailand has poor health and safety standards and accidents are common across the kingdom."

You don't say!

if your read the news you know the doors where locked. so the children could not get out.

thailand poor safety standards?

not so sure., for example look at the american electrical plug and compare them to the european American can cause easy fire and able to electrocute you. Remember some american cars like the pinto economically cheaper to pay the victims than replace the fuel tank.

on the road the american style of the the yellow line in hte middle one never see after a few days due to sun light and dirt

white lines in the middle works.

poor health standards?

not so sure too. you have all you can wish for only thai mentality is not set to have insurance and cover events in the future

.

Just want to point out that safety comes with vision and clear mind and so called safe countries a lot can improve

but most people look not further than the tunneled vision of the newspapers and the tunnel vision most reporters have.

[chilli42]

Primary inspection revealed that so many lives were perished because the dormitory was locked from outside, thus trapping the victims inside.

How many times do innocent people have to die in fires in this country before it dawns on everyone that it's murder to lock someone inside a building with no means of escape. In this case, I am sure these kids had no adult supervision. How tragic that this was a completely avoidable disaster.

[simonuk]

Either this was someone struggling to educate these girls with hardly any financial support or someone was getting rich whilst investing the minimum.

I suspect it was the first.

As a 15 year firefighter at some of the UKs busiest fire stations iim disgusted by Thailand's ignorance and lack of fire protection.

This is no longer a third world country , there is plenty of money available.Just not the will.

The problem is ignorance and corruption. That's can.That can be applied to all things inn Thailand.

[macksview]

RIP little girls

all sorts of scroats, peds,rapeists, granny bashers etc, seem to live forever, but innocent ones seem to suffer.

little angels, i am crying for you, please have peace.

[NongKhaiKid]

Dare i suggest there be a full and extensive investigation with a no holds barred report telling it like it is.

No cover ups, excuses, avoidance of responsibility and so on. The families and the public deserve the completer truth, however ... !

[Bantex]

How sad.

My sympathy goes to the families.

[webfact]

18 girls killed in fire at school dorm in northern Thailand
GABRIELLE PALUCH, Associated Press
NATNICHA CHUWIRUCH, Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — A nighttime fire at a boarding school dormitory in northern Thailand killed 18 girls ranging from 5 to 12 years old, police and school officials said Monday. Five others were injured.

The two-story wooden structure, which caught fire Sunday night, housed 38 girls, most of them belonging to the area's ethnic minorities. Fifteen girls escaped without injuries. The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Some of the students were still not asleep when the fire broke out and were able to raise the alarm, said Rewat Wassana, manager of the Pithakkaiat Witthaya School, to which the dorm is attached.

The kindergarten and primary school in Wiang Pa Pao district, just outside the city of Chiang Rai, has about 400 day students and boarders. It is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) north of Bangkok.

Rewat said the fire broke out in the dorm's lower level, which is used for activities. The upper level housed the sleeping quarters. It is one of the two dorms on the 20-acre (8-hectare) school grounds. The other dorm, which is located nearby and is for boys, was untouched, Rewat said.

"We have a teacher who sleeps with the girls in the dorm. She tried to help the students escape," Rewat told reporters at a news conference that was broadcast on local television channels.

A 11-year-old girl identified only as Suchada told the same news conference that she had gotten up to go to the bathroom when she noticed the fire downstairs, and ran to tell her friends in various rooms. But some of them didn't believe her and closed the door on her to go back to sleep, she said.

"We remembered some lessons from Girl Scouts to tie cloth together to make a long rope and we climbed out of the window," the fifth-grade student said. "The teacher helped us. While the teacher was climbing down, the rope tore and she hurt her leg and waist."

Most of the victims had shut themselves in their rooms thinking Suchada was playing a prank. Each room sleeps seven or eight girls.

A police official told The Associated Press by phone that besides the 18 dead, another five girls were injured, including two in serious condition. He said two of the bodies were so badly burned they were unidentifiable. The official did not wish to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Firefighters took three hours to extinguish the fire, and pulled survivors and bodies from the second-story window of the wooden building.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-05-23

[cumgranosalum]

Awful event

Poor children. How do these things happen?

Th Guardian (UK):

"Thailand has poor health and safety standards and accidents are common across the kingdom."

You don't say!

if your read the news you know the doors where locked. so the children could not get out.

thailand poor safety standards?

not so sure., for example look at the american electrical plug and compare them to the european American can cause easy fire and able to electrocute you. Remember some american cars like the pinto economically cheaper to pay the victims than replace the fuel tank.

on the road the american style of the the yellow line in hte middle one never see after a few days due to sun light and dirt

white lines in the middle works.

poor health standards?

not so sure too. you have all you can wish for only thai mentality is not set to have insurance and cover events in the future

.

Just want to point out that safety comes with vision and clear mind and so called safe countries a lot can improve

but most people look not further than the tunneled vision of the newspapers and the tunnel vision most reporters have.

possibly the most facile post so far.

What you are giving as examples are how in other countries safety matters ARE exposed and highlighted and then redress is available - which is precisely what doesn't happen in Thailand.