#Fire #Thai #nightclub #kills #orders #investigation
Thailand’s prime minister on Friday ordered an investigation into a massive fire that ripped through a nightclub, killing at least 13 people.
The fire broke out around 1:00 a.m. (Thursday 1800 GMT) at Mountain B nightspot in the Sattahip district of Chonburi province, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok.
Video footage posted by emergency services showed frantic revelers fleeing the club screaming, their clothes on fire as a huge fire raged in the background.
The Sawang Rojanathammasathan Rescue Foundation said 13 people were killed and more than 40 injured, 14 of them seriously.
The service said the fire was accelerated by flammable acoustic foam covering the club’s walls and it took firefighters more than three hours to bring it under control.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha sent his condolences to the victims’ families and said he had ordered an investigation into the fire.
The dead — four women and nine men — were found mostly huddled at the entrance and in the bathroom, their bodies badly burned, the service said.
They ranged in age from 17 to 49 and were all said to be Thai.
“There is no foreigner-related death,” Lt. Col. Boonsong Yingyong of the Phlu Ta Luang Police Station, which monitors the area where the fire broke out, told AFP by phone.
– Charred Wreck –
One of the victims was the lead singer of the band playing at the club, his mother told local media.
“I don’t know what to say. The death came very suddenly,” Premjai Sae-Oung told reporters.
She said a musician friend who managed to escape told her the fire started in front of the band and spread quickly.
Pictures of the aftermath showed how the fire had reduced the club’s interior to a blackened wreck, with the charred metal frames of furniture scattered among ashes.
Engineers are inspecting the one-story building for fear it might collapse.
Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters it appeared that Mountain B was operating as a venue “without a permit”.
Concerns have long been raised about Thailand’s lax approach to health and safety regulations, particularly in its myriad of bars and nightclubs.
In 2009, a massive inferno erupted at a New Year’s Eve party at Bangkok’s chic Santika club, killing 67 and injuring more than 200.
The Santika owner was sentenced to three years in prison for the fire, which started when fireworks were set off when a rock band called Burn was playing on stage.
Most recently, in 2012, four people died in a fire caused by an electrical fault at a club on the resort island of Phuket, a magnet for foreign tourists.
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