Something big burning out there tonight in BKK?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Saw loads of fire trucks and guys on motorcycles -- all with sirens blazing -- heading east on Sukhumvit from Asoke toward Phrom Phong around 7 pm tonight?  Something big burning out there?

 

[ozterix]

yes the waterford tower on sukhumvit prom phong is on fire.

 I have some friends in the building, one couple escaped by chance, the girl opened the door and noticed smoke so called her hubby they ran down the stairs, did not meet anyone .

 

there were 3 floors on fire below them, half security light in the stair case did not work so they had no light and were struggling to walk down, there was NOT ALARM despite a fire raging in the building over multiple floors

 

when they reached the ground floor, they saw a few people but not many were out. 

 

we have two more friends in the building and can not reach them as they are too high and cellphone can not catch the tower. This is terrible to see the level of safety in a building that is quite modern with over 50 floors, no fire alarm, no smoke detectors

 

terrible

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Yikes!!!  That's a very bad report, and a very well known building.  I suspect there will be some recap of events in the overnight/Tues morning news cycle.

 

Is this the place you're talking about?

 

 

The Waterford Diamond was completed in 1998 and sits in a very nice quiet side street around 7 or 8 minutes walk to BTS Phrom Phong, the park and malls.

 

Additional Details

• Year Built: 1998
• Closest BTS Station: Phrom Phong
• Towers: 1
• Total Floors: 46

[ozterix]

I am amazed that nobody commented here and that there is no news about this anywhere.

 

There were a few ambulances so there must be some people troubled/injured by smoke at least.

The fact that this building being quite modern, in a quite wealthy area and hosting many Japanese families has NO fire alarm, NO sprinkler that went off and ON/OFF fire lights in the stair case is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

what will it take to trigger an audit of the various building in bangkok to verify sprinkler, smoke detector and light in the stair case. This should be a mandatory inspection.

 

So many farangs looking for a job, this is a business to start, auditing building, publicly reporting their state and have an index published for people searching to rent or buy, that would make some people move on and probably change the level of security in the city

 

oz

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1. I looked around this morning before going out, and I couldn't find any news reports anywhere on whatever happened there last night. Maybe it's the kind of news that someone doesn't want publicized.

 

2. Your idea about someone starting a business to do private building inspections has been one that's been discussed before, both here and elsewhere such as on FB expat forums, etc.  I think one common response has been that any farang who decided to take on such a task in Thailand would probably find themselves dead sooner or later, probably sooner.

 

There's no inherent, societal interest in safety here. You don't have to look far to see that, in any multitude of sectors. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

 

 

[claffey]

Any updates on this story? Thaivisa is much slower than it use to be regarding updated news articles. 

[Crossy]

I can't find anything in the English language press, if anyone has links to this news story (in any language) please post here.

[fishism]

Police think 3 thing: 1 someone want to start. 2 crazy people want to start. 3 accident from people fixing the empty room that catch fire.

Not sure I got 1 correct, was difficult to understand gf's rambling. It was on the TV news


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