Bangkok: fire inspections.

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Fire exit at RCA Cinema, Bangkok

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Ever since the fire blaze at the Santika nightclub in Bangkok on New Year's Eve killed 64 people, there has been lots of blah, blah, blah in the local press.

"Club goers should check out where the exits are each time they enter a club". *

"Sometimes the sprinklers may not work".

So far few reports have put responsibility squarely on the shoulders of those required to carry out the law!

A year ago (December 29, 2007) the law was changed.  Now nine kinds of buildings (apartments, large blocks, places of entertainment, etc) must be inspected each year and the authority with responsibility to ensure this is carried out is (for Bangkok) the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority.

The Bangkok Post reported yesterday that the BMA is required by this new law to inspect around 5,900 buildings each year.  So far, during this last twelve months, the BMA has managed to visit only 3,000 buildings.  Of those 3,000, only 200 (that is about seven percent) got certificates that they safe! And none of these 3,000 inspections were places of entertainment!

It is not clear from the Bangkok Post article who exactly has the responsibility within the BMA. I think, if a nightclub had caught fire in the UK and the authority had not carried out proper annual inspections, there would be a huge hullaballoo in the press and on TV and someone would need to resign.

Here in Thailand, while there are lots of complaints, no one seems to saying clearly:  "This is not good enough.  We know who is responsible for checking.  Heads should roll!"

To be fair, the Bangkok Post says that three professional organisations intend to meet with the Prime Minister (although not with the BMA) to urge the governmen to enforce the law.  The maximum penalty under this law is about 60,000baht (about $2000). Peanuts!

My own take on this outrage?  People in Thailand are so used to safety laws being ignored and people being burnt to death, that no one blinks an eyelid when it occurs.  I can remember a case of forty women textile workers being burnt to death in a locked factory.  And I know of other reports in the press.

How many people need to die such appallingly painful deaths before anyone takes notice?

Post script: At the time of the Santika fire, the Bangkok police said they would be inspecting the RCA (Royal City Avenue) entertainment area.  I am there now (Friday):  the picture of the locked doors is of the cinema. TODAY!  These doors have been locked, to my knowledge, for at least five years.  I went in, took the pic and went out.  The staff saw me and just smiled!  I'm not blaming them.

The Bangkok Post last week published a letter from an English Fire Regulations expert.  One thing he said was that the UK law insisted that enough exits, and wide enough, must be provided so that all the users on any floor could get out in the case of a fire, within TWO AND A HALF MINUTES!

When I worked for the Centre for Environmental Studies (a think tank) I became the Trade Union Health and safety Rep. and went on a training course.  I learnt about hazards and we practised identifying them.  As the Rep I had the power to close down the building if there were hazards and the owners refused to take action!  We also had regular six monthly fire drills where everyone had to followe the instructions!  That is the way people learn about safety!

Waking up:

Since writing this, Ive begun to think about the places Ive been going to in Bangkok over the past 15 years. I kind of enjoyed all the "small, intimate, friendly places" Ive visited:  places you went in and up the narrow stairs to the two-rooms-into-one on the next floor.  Crowded, full of smokers, lots of great drink and music.  Fantastic places, no fire exit signs, no sprinklers, just the one staircase:  fire traps!

Also, I love going to Luk Thung clubs (music from the poor rural north-east of Thailand):  large places, terribly crowded, hardly any foreigners (I like that), mainly working class people from the north east, eating their local spicey food, drinking and  Luk Thung dancing.  The food, served on hot trays, heated by those night candles.  One entrance in the front, no windows, always crowded, open till two in the morning, no fire signs, certainly nothing as dull as sprinklers: death traps!

I was in Hanoi last year with a friend and we found a "delightful" traditional six storey Vietnamese house with a roof terrace with a superb view over the central lake!  The (largely wooden) building had a central courtyard reaching up the six floors (a wind tunnel!) and we had to climb a rickety metal stair way on the side of this courtyard, to get to the roof.  Wonderful view; gorgeous atmosphere, very Vietnamese:  no other way to get down but the rickety stairs. A death trap!

I will never go there again! But there are thousands of other delightful places across the world, superb settings, lots of atmosphere and no fire exits!

* I quoted this sentence at the start of this piece because I thought it was preposterous that customers should have to think for themselves about the fire escapes before they enter a building.  Ive now changed my mind.