No one hurt in fire at Major Cineplex Pinklao, police say

[sahibji]

Very sad for those who were trapped and suffocated. Definitely a terrifying way to die.

I can only assume that there is no sprinkler system in this building for the fire to rage out of control and climb up several floors. When will Thailand ever enforce safety standards??

from my knowledge the sprinklers are meant to be indicators of fire.

tle little water that pours out does not help to put out fires.

[sahibji]

there are usually conflicting reports in the initial stages

of the incident and these get tweaked as more definitive come to light.

any way the main purpose of responsible reporting is to inform

people about the incidence.

it is most fortunate that no casualties have been reported as yet.

the fate of those trapped on the higher floors will be known only sometime later.

[uniquefarang]

When a native English speaker reads the phrase, “Many were suffocated...,” naturally the person understands this to mean that people died, since the primary definition of suffocate is “to die or cause to die from lack of air or inability to breathe”.

The secondary definition “to have or cause to have difficulty in breathing” would not normally be used in the passive voice (“were suffocated”). Examples:

• [no object] he was suffocating, his head jammed up against the back of the sofa (past progressive)

• [with object] you're suffocating me—I can scarcely breathe (present progressive)

• (as adj. suffocating) : the suffocating heat.

Apparently these are subtle differences lost on non-native speakers.

Edited July 29, 2016 by uniquefarang

[gdgbb]

Very sad for those who were trapped and suffocated. Definitely a terrifying way to die.

I can only assume that there is no sprinkler system in this building for the fire to rage out of control and climb up several floors. When will Thailand ever enforce safety standards??

No one died.

The building has it's own fire extinguishing system but those systems are not designed to put out any blaze regardless off it's intensity.

In this case safety standards were enforced and the building conformed to all regulations and regular inspections were carried out.

[Henryford]

Surely a small fire from a light could be put out with a fire extinguisher, if they had one, before it developed into a major fire.

[gdgbb]

The BKK Post has an early afternoon web update saying that one firefighter was injured and two citizens received minor injuries from broken glass. No mention of any deaths or suffocations.

The update did mention that the firefighters had to use special equipment because the fire was generating "toxic gas" and was being fed by "inflammable" [sic] carpet flooring.

The update also says firefighters had to get out of the building around 1:30 pm "after the third and fourth storeys collapsed" in the areas of the cinemas -- though I'm not sure the part about storeys collapsing is an accurate statement. I think they mean areas of the building's roof collapsed.

The report also said the building had its own "fire distinguishing" system [ohh, for an actual English-speaking editor], but that the fire spread rapidly anyway.

Why the inverted commas and "sic" when quoting the BP's use of the word inflammable? There's nothing wrong with that usage.

Why did you say the BP used the words "fire distinguishing system" when it actually said "fire extinguishing system?

[gdgbb]

Does this remind anybody of a certain school,where kids died and there was no case to answer.

when will they ever learn? Greed and budget cutting to line someones pockets is the sickest form of crime.

For this incident to be a reminder there would have to be some similarities which, apart from fire, there is none at all.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The BKK Post has an early afternoon web update saying that one firefighter was injured and two citizens received minor injuries from broken glass. No mention of any deaths or suffocations.

The update did mention that the firefighters had to use special equipment because the fire was generating "toxic gas" and was being fed by "inflammable" [sic] carpet flooring.

The update also says firefighters had to get out of the building around 1:30 pm "after the third and fourth storeys collapsed" in the areas of the cinemas -- though I'm not sure the part about storeys collapsing is an accurate statement. I think they mean areas of the building's roof collapsed.

The report also said the building had its own "fire distinguishing" system [ohh, for an actual English-speaking editor], but that the fire spread rapidly anyway.

Why the inverted commas and "sic" when quoting the BP's use of the word inflammable? There's nothing wrong with that usage.

Why did you say the BP used the words "fire distinguishing system" when it actually said "fire extinguishing system?

1. Re Inflammable, yes you're right, my error. One of the odd quirks of the English language that I forgot is that flammable and inflammable mean the same thing, meaning capable of being burned.

2. However, when I read the BKKP website yesterday afternoon, the article posted there said "distinguishing." I didn't misread it, and it was such a stupid error that I felt it was worth calling attention to. Presumably, someone at the Post eventually got around to noticing it also.

[gk10002000]

I would not trust the wording of the article that says people were suffocated. Quite likely to be a mis-use of the word and they meant to say were suffocating or were breathing in smoke, etc. One article says nobody killed others say several suffocated.