Santika tragedy: Another example of lacking ‘preventive measures’?
By Supi Caliri
Photo by: Thai News Agency (TNA)
The New Year blaze at Santika Club in a sparkling nightlife centre of inner Bangkok which caused over 60 death and some 200 injured may be the latest tragic incident but no one was certain if it would be the last example of lacking “sufficient” preventive measures to prevent a public disaster in Thailand.
After the incident which broke out early Thursday morning, a long list of insufficient measures on fire safety in the nightclub has been indentified by concerned government authorities, despite knowing the exact causes of the blaze in the overcrowded entertainment spot that night.
Some injured at hospitals later said there were insufficient exit signs, making them be unable to find their ways out in the midst of thick smoke, while some said there were steel bars preventing them from breaking the glass windows to escape the raging blaze. But I personally doubted if there is any fire extinguisher available in such venue for the staff or guests to use before the fire brigade could rush to the scene.
Then, it was reported that newly-appointed Interior Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul had said during his visit to Chulalongkorn Hospital where blaze victims from the New Year’s blaze at Santika Club were being treated that law enforcement in fire safety and the building code must be stepped up.
He said something like, “We should learn from this tragic event and come up with measures to avoid repeating the same mistakes. There should be random inspections on safety measures to be conducted by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration officials.”
I totally agree with the minister on that, but I also believe that there are still so many things Thailand and concerned authorities could do to prevent such sad incident.
I just don’t want to hear people saying “It is too late to shut the stable-door after the horse has bolted” in this beautiful country anymore!
Photo by: ASTV Manager
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