Three weeks on, patience thin for parents of dead schoolgirls
By Teeranai Charuvastra, Staff Reporter


Interim parliament member Tuang Untachai points as photographers snap photos Tuesday in the burned dormitory of Chiang Rai’s Pitakkiet Witthaya School. Numerous VIPs have visited the school and posed for photo-ops since the fire, but no legal action has been taken.

CHIANG RAI — More than three weeks have passed since a fire killed 17 girls at a boarding school for impoverished hill tribe children, and police have yet to file a charge against anyone over the incident.

While the father of one victim said the delay is wearing him and other victim’s families down, police commanders Tuesday repeated their pleas for more time before they file any charge against the Christian charity that ran the school, where no smoke detectors were installed and no alarm was raised.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crimecourtscalamity/2016/06/14/three-weeks-patience-thin-parents-dead-schoolgirls/

-- Khaosod English 2016-06-15

The lack of smoke alarms is not surprising, but what is a bit off is the layout or structure of the building. The girls were probably staying in one room with only one entrance, and probably were locked in. I have seen some hotels in Pattaya that were probably used as boarding houses in the past and they all have hasps and padlocks on the outside. Basically I suspect the girls had no way out.

To file charges would mean that someone would be blamed and you cant have that despite the total incompetence of the people concerned with running the school. I feel very sorry for the parent who lost children in the fire. It seems as if the authorities are more concerned with protecting the school authorities than they are with getting closure and justice for the bereaved parents.

Of course it wouldnt just stop at the school authorities but also would include the inspectors who allowed such a situation that the children were put in danger. Sadly it is highly unlikely that anything will happen which is terrible.

...shameful....

Yes, the apparent inaction probably masks an absolute frenzy of pass the parcel as the owners, licensing authorities, inspection organizations and every other participant sharing responsibility for this shameful tragedy make sure their personal financial losses are minimized with the appropriate disbursement of any handling charges.

What ... the city government and their safety inspectors have no accountability?

What if it had happened in a private school for rich kids? Right, this is Thailand, I almost forgot...

In the initial story someone asked the ranking police person what caused the fire. Paraphrasing, he said that the cause was known but another department would have to announce it. So, what caused the fire?

Key words here are:

"impoverished hilltribe children".