17 replies to this topic

[Sexpat]

"Deputy Police Commissioner-General Pol Gen Jongrak Juthanon said the Metropolitan Police was opposed to the operation of Santika Pub but the pub was allowed to operate by an injunction of the Administrative Court.

He said the Metropolitan Police did not allow the pub to be open in 2004 on grounds that the place did not conform to standard but the injunction allowed the pub to operate pending a ruling in the case."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...ty-police-chief

[Taxi driver]

I wonder if it's the same judge who let the PAD leaders out on bail so they could continue to trash government house and occupy the airports. I'm curious to see where the blame game leads, if anywhere. My guess is that all of the documents showing who allowed this fire trap to operate for 4 years, "pending a ruling" that never came, have already disappeared. It will probably get the usual cover-up, just like all those boat accidents where 30 people drown in a boat meant for 10, without life preservers. I suspect there's not even a Thai word for "public safety ?"

[DOLLY]

Living in Thailand all these years, I have to say that it doesn't surprise me that a night club that should never have been allowed to open in the first place got some judge to sign an order allowing it to stay open while the case was pending.

If this happened at home, which is hard to imagine given the stringent enforcement of fire codes back home, there would be a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by attorneys for the dead and injured against the club and the authorities within hours, and all of the dirty facts as to who and why this was allowed to happen would become public knowledge.

I've lived here too long to think that will happen here. Let's hope I am wrong.

[Haloi]

When I saw the headline: POLICE TO CHARGE NIGHTCLUB OWNER, I felt relieved that the person responsible for this tragedy was going to be punished.

Then I read the article:

"The police planned to charge a major shareholder of Santika pub named Visuk Setsawad, better known as Hia Khao, for allowing people under 20 years of age to enter the venue.

A fire broke out at the nightclub located in Bangkok's Thong Lo district when partygoers were celebrating the New Year's countdown. The fire left at least 61 dead and 243 injured.

The police had interrogated 25 witnesses so far and had excluded arson in their investigations after knowing that the venue's insurance contact expired a long time ago."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=135685

ONLY IN AMAZING THAILAND !

[UncleSam]

Can we expect the unidentified dead foreigners to be fined for not carrying their ID's or passports ?

[Kirkland]

What's to investigate ? The place had one entrance/exit and one fire extinguisher for a night time capacity of over 500 people ! Yet, the Prime Minister is quoted as asking "what went wrong ?"

And don't you just love the conclusion that it must not have been arson because "the insurance contract expired a long time ago." !!

[loeploh]

It can happen in any country, I don't know why you only point your farangs fingers towards Thailand.

Its always T.I.T. and never T.I.A.

Look into your own back yard , there are problems enough. believe it or not !!!

[Snowy]

What's to investigate ? The place had one entrance/exit ...

This has made me think of some of the first floor gay bars I have frequented in Pattaya and Bangkok, especially in Pattayaland Soi 1 in Pty and Soi Twilight in BKK.

Many of them can only be accessed by a narrow staircase. I would hazard a guess that this is the only means of entry/exit in the vast majority of them - (I once asked one of the boys what would they do if there was an emergency and the staircase was blocked - answer? jump out of window!).

As for meeting so-called Thai safety regulations (if they exist in any meaningful way at all) and having insurance, it is probable that neither are a remote consideration when owners open up for business. It makes one wonder how they get their licences, if they have legal ones at all - but hey, TIT and money talks !

[Sexpat]

Three days since the fire and the Bangkok Post is already saying this:

"The owner and operators of the Santika Club may face only minor technical charges after the fire which killed at least 59 people on New Year's Eve."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/1356...of-flouting-law

[Hedda]

t can happen in any country, I don't know why you only point your farangs fingers towards Thailand. Its always T.I.T. and never T.I.A.Look into your own back yard , there are problems enough. believe it or not !!!

Accidents can and do happen in other countries, but Thailand seems to have more than its share of preventable accidents, to which countless people, Thai and foreigners, are exposed for no reason other than government incompetence or corruption, or both.

If this kind of tragedy had occurred in the US or EU, I can guarantee you that the minister in charge and most certainly the press would have promptly found and disclosed the name of the operator, judge and public prosecutor who allowed this fire trap to open without the proper safeguards in 2004. Once disclosed in public, those folks would have come under immediate pressure to explain why such an obvious public nuisance was allowed to open in the first place and why it was allowed to continue for 4 years of what appears to be benign neglect. Some people didn't do their job. Those person should be identified by the government and the press.

What you get from the Thai authorities and press when these tragedies occur is a rush to close the barn door, even when the barn is gone, some sensational front page photos of dead bodies and weeping survivors, owners who do the bus driver trick and flee the scene, and the empty echo of bureaucrats calling for "better regulation." No one asks: Who let this place open and stay open - and why - and no one ever demands resignations to acknowledge what seems a clear dereliction of duty.

Accidents can happen, even when all precautions are taken. But when preventable mass tragedies like this occur and which border on the criminal, the public interest demands that we stop treating them as an act of God and make sure that the responsible humans are punished. This rarely happens in Thailand and until it does, this country will have an infinite number of barn doors which never get closed until it's too late. Until this changes, "TIT" seems an apt way to shorthand this deplorable situation.

[loeploh]

Some years ago there was a big hotel fire in Jomtien..I think it was in 1997..Many people died.
It was a horror scene,seeing the people jumpinh out of their hotel rooms.
The hotel managers ordered to lock all the emergency doors. So people would not go without paying the hotel bill.

[Bob]

"TIT" seems an apt way to shorthand this deplorable situation.

Yep, probably the best way to describe it. After visiting too many dangerous places (discos, restaurants, and some public buildings) in Thailand and elsewhere, one begins to appreciate all the more the extensive and stringent requirements for structures in the west. Sprinkler systems, an adequate number of exit doors (with the doors opening "out" and not "in"), smoke and fire alarms, independently lighted exit signs, minimum width aisles and hallways, level flooring and sidewalks, rules against pyrotechnics inside buildings, etc., do save lives and prevent injuries.

[Whore Hin]

Some years ago there was a big hotel fire in Jomtien..I think it was in 1997..Many people died.
It was a horror scene,seeing the people jumpinh out of their hotel rooms.
The hotel managers ordered to lock all the emergency doors. So people would not go without paying the hotel bill.

Let's not forget the personal cremation room of a certain kathoi Madame for those who dare to cross her...

Hehehe

[J.Bell]

Let's not forget the personal cremation room of a certain kathoi Madame for those who dare to cross her..

Would someone care to translate what that all means ?

[Bob]

Would someone care to translate what that all means ?

It's an attempt by someone who knows nothing about the matter to suggest that a certain bar/hotel owner committed murder by burning a certain guest in one of rooms. The poster obviously has little knowledge about the libel laws in Thailand (or elsewhere).

[Pussy]

It's an attempt by someone who knows nothing about the matter to suggest that a certain bar/hotel owner committed murder by burning a certain guest in one of rooms.

Thanks Bob for clearing that up. I had no idea what Whore Hin was going on about. Thanks for making it so pointed and clear.

[jim]

...If this kind of tragedy had occurred in the US or EU, I can guarantee you that the minister in charge and most certainly the press would have promptly found and disclosed the name of the operator, judge and public prosecutor who allowed this fire trap to open without the proper safeguards in 2004. Once disclosed in public, those folks would have come under immediate pressure to explain why such an obvious public nuisance was allowed to open in the first place and why it was allowed to continue for 4 years of what appears to be benign neglect. Some people didn't do their job. Those person should be identified by the government and the press.

What you get from the Thai authorities and press when these tragedies occur is a rush to close the barn door, even when the barn is gone, some sensational front page photos of dead bodies and weeping survivors, owners who do the bus driver trick and flee the scene, and the empty echo of bureaucrats calling for "better regulation." No one asks: Who let this place open and stay open - and why - and no one ever demands resignations to acknowledge what seems a clear dereliction of duty. .....

Right, Hedda!! But let some poor farang get arrested and charged with unlawful contact with somebody under the legal age, and their names and photos appear in every public venue possible. "Guilty until proven innocent or until they pay somebody enough to be allowed to leave the country".

[Whore Hin]

It's an attempt by someone who knows nothing about the matter to suggest that a certain bar/hotel owner committed murder by burning a certain guest in one of rooms. The poster obviously has little knowledge about the libel laws in Thailand (or elsewhere).

It appears that it is dear old brown noser Bob who has no knowledge of the libel laws in Thailand (or elsewhere):

Andrew Drummond cleared in Thai ‘MacMafia’ libel trials

A British journalist, who exposed the activities of two Scots – nicknamed the ‘Gay MacMafia’- in the Thai sex resort of Pattaya, has been cleared of two cases of criminal libel after a nine year court battle.

Freelance correspondent Andrew Drummond, 57, former correspondent of ‘The Observer’ and London ‘Times’, was cleared of libeling James Lumsden, 59, from Falkirk, who with his partner Gordon May, 67, from Edinburgh, was one of the biggest foreign players in the resort’s gay sex industry.

http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2010/03/16/...a-libel-trials/