chookdee

Hochhaus "FICO" in Flammen - Vor-Ort Bericht
BANGKOK - Am 03.03.2012 stand das FICO Hochhaus in der Asok Road nähe der bekannten Soi Cowboy in Flammen.

Das Feuer ist um 15.00 Uhr ausgebrochen und die Feuerwehr konnte bis17.00 Uhr das Feuer noch nicht unter Kontrolle bringen.

Ausgebrochen ist das Feuer auf der 7. Etage und frass sich bis auf die obersten Etagen des 13 Stöckigen Gebäudes durch.

Ob Personen verletzt oder getötet wurden, ist zur Zeit noch nicht bekannt.

Autofahrern wird geraten die Gegend um die Asok Road weitläufig zu umfahren.

Ein Reporter des WOCHENBLITZ war vor Ort und hat folgende Bilder geschossen.

Fire at Asok building
The Asok-Sukhumvit area of central Bangkok faced chaos on Saturday as a fire broke out at a 13-floor office building but no one was injured, police said.

The fire, believed to have been caused by an electrical short-circuit, originated on the seventh floor of the Fico Place building located on Sukhumvit Soi 21 (Asok) shortly before 3pm and spread quickly to other top floors.

Brände - Thailand: Touristin bei Hotelfeuer in Bangkok umgekommen

Bangkok (dpa) - Bei einem Hotelbrand in Bangkok ist eine ausländische Touristin ums Leben gekommen. Das bestätigte die Polizei. Die Frau sprang nach Medienberichten aus ihrem Zimmer im 6. Stock in den Swimmingpool des Grand Mercure Park Avenue Hotel an der belebten Sukhumvit Road. Die Polizei konnte noch nicht sagen, woher das Opfer stammte. Laut Polizei wurden 24 Hotelgäste verletzt, die meisten von ihnen aus Russland. Sie erlitten Rauchvergiftungen. Das Feuer brach aus noch ungeklärten Gründen am späten Abend offenbar in einem Konferenzraum im fünften Stock aus.

No sprinklers on burned hotel floor
The banquet room on the fifth floor of the Grand Park Avenue Hotel, where Thursday night's fatal fire started, had no sprinklers and was probably built in an area planned as a carpark, Deputy Bangkok Governor Thirachon Manomaipibul said on Friday.

The whole floor had no sprinkler system installed, and the floor-to-ceiling distance appeared to be too low, Mr Thirachon said after inspecting the 15-storey, four-star hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 22 this morning.

He suspected the floor might have originally be designed as a carpark and the used for other purposes as part of the hotel's extension.

An initial inspection found the premises occupioed by the Grand Park Avenue Hotel were registered as a residential building in 1989, and the owners sought permission to operate as a hotel in 1992, Mr Thirachon said.

Buildings that were built before 1992 were not required to install sprinklers under the 1992 Building Safety Control Act.

City Hall announced plans to draft a new ordinance demanding that owners of older buildings comply with the 1992 Building Safety Control Act following Saturday’s fire at the 33-year-old Fico Place highrise building in nearby Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit soi 21.

City Hall will set up 50 teams comprising officials from the Public Works Department. Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office, City Law Enforcement Department and District Offices to inspect large private buildings in all 50 districts of Bangkok to ensure they comply with the building control law.

Pichaya Chantaranuwat, chair of building safety committee of the Engineering Institute of Thailand, said after inspecting the firte-damaged Grand Park Avenue Hotel that there was only one fire exit on the fifth floor where the fire started and no fire doors to prevent the blaze and smoke from quickly spreading to other floors.

The fire was reported around 9.40pm Thursday night. There were 23 hotel guests reported injured. Most were Russian. One of the injured, an Asian man, was later pronounced dead at hospital. Medical staff said he died from smoke asphyxiation.