Bangkok Fire

[TotallyOz]

I have been to this place several times with friends. It was not a gay club but very popular with Thais and Westerners alike. It is a true travesty and my thoughts and prayers are with those who have lost loved ones.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/...fire/index.html

http://bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=135674

Dozens die in night club fire

The fire at the Santika Club in Soi Ekamai occurred shortly after the joyous midnight countdown, according to Pol Lt Gen Viboon Bangthamai, deputy metropolitan police commander.

Thong Lo district police commander Pol Col Suphin Sapphuang said 61 people had been confirmed dead - 53 at the scene and eight who succumbed later in hospital. One of the victims was a Singaporean, while the rest were Thai.

New Year's Eve was billed by the club as a "Goodbye Santika" party, with the up-scale entertainment centre about to move to a new location.

The Singaporean victim was identified as Teo Sze Siong. A Japanese man, Wada Keiichi, 25, was in a coma with burns over 60 per cent of his body.

Pol Lt Gen Jongrak Jutanont, Assistant National Police Chief, said he believes investigators will find the club's safety system was "sub-standard" but he did not elaborate on that statement.

Some reports said the lights went out as soon as the fire started, dousing signs pointing to emergency exits, while others said only the front entrance was available as an exit.

Most of the bodies were found in the club's basement. Police said the hi-so club had only one door for entry and exit.

"Everybody was pushing against each other ... People, particularly young girls, were pushed away and crushed underneath as others stomped on them trying to get out," said Sompong Tritaweelap, who witnessed the inferno from his apartment behind the club.

"People were screaming for help from every window. It was a terrible sight. Their hair and clothes were on fire but there was nothing they could do as the fire engulfed them."

In all, emergency services said 243 people including 29 foreigners had been injured and had been rushed to 19 hospitals across the capital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation.

Japan's Kyodo news agency said four Japanese nationals were injured, one seriously, while a spokeswoman from Britain's Foreign Office said that at least four Britons were hurt in the blaze, with two in intensive care. The French foreign ministry said two of its nationals were injured, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said three of its

nationals were in hospital, and Thai emergency services officials said that citizens of Switzerland, Finland and the United States were also injured.

The popular club consistently attracted a mixed crowd

of Thais and visitors.

Emergency services at the scene rushed the injured to 16 hospitals around Bangkok with various injuries including burns and smoke inhalation.

A horrified new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva viewed the charred scene early on New Year's morning, and visited some of the injured in city hospitals.

Fireworks lit by the club employees for the New Year celebration and show probably torched the facility’s curtain near the roof, he said.

Pol Lt Col Prawit Kantwol, one of the first officers on the scene, agreed.

"It appears that the fire started from the area of the stage where a band was playing. There were some pyrotechnics and it appears that they started the blaze," he said.

"Most of the victims died from suffocation but some were also killed in a stampede when people were trying to get out."

The two-storey club was completely gutted by the fire, with the front of the building blackened and partially collapsed.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control at about 2 a.m. and retrieved most

of the 53 bodies on the floor of the club, most of them on the lower club level where music was played bodies, he said.

Deaths apparently came from direct burns from the flames, from smoke inhalation and from injuries during the stampede to escape from the engulfing fire.

Some victims were trapped in the basement of the club, which was accessed via a narrow stairwell. The roof of the building had also collapsed during the blaze.

Rescue workers placed the bodies in white shrouds, in rows in the club's parking lot for possible identification and removal.

It was the most casualties in a fire in Thailand since July 11, 1997, when a blaze which began in the coffee shop of the 17-storey Royal Jomtien Hotel at Pattaya killed 91 trapped staff and guests.

[marcanthony]

It really is a tragedy when any of these things happen. In an instant, a wonderful joyous moment turns into unspeakable grief.

As someone who rang in the New Year in the middle of such a club, though, it's not hard to understand how something like that can happen. First, it's packed to the hilt. The club I was at was so packed that it took the last person (me) one and a half hours after closing to get through coat check.

Second, there's booze everywhere. That is a problem both in that it's flammable and also that it makes many people not give a shit about safety.

Finally it's loud and dark... so it's hard to see a problem happening until it really is a big problem.

I don't know the answer... because I am big fan of these clubs, and I don't necessarily want them to change. But somehow there do need to be more doors on all of these places.