The old Mandarin hotel Bangkok was declared a danger zone yesterday after a fire in the early hours of yesterday morning sent hundreds of foreign guests fleeing. Sixteen were treated for smoke inhalation, with five remaining in hospital last night.
Police said the 30-year-old building on Rama IV road in Bang Rak, had no water sprinkler system.
The blaze had started on the second-floor and smoke spread quickly to the 10th floor.
About 400 guests were evacuated.
The blaze took nearly four hours to bring under control.
The Mandarin hotel Bangkok management said the fire affected a storage area, a fitness room and one wing of a connected building.
Police were investigating the cause, but said an initial investigation showed a short-circuit was responsible.
The flame- and smoked-scarred structure was declared off limits after an inspection by Bangkok Metropolitan Administration safety officers yesterday.
Bang Rak police chief Santi Jeekangwan said guests had not been allowed back into the building to get their belongings.
They must wait until it was declared safe by city public works department building inspectors.
Initial estimates put the damage to the hotel at 100 million baht.
The fire in the 372-room hotel started shortly after midnight.
Police evacuated the hotel guests to a nearby Christian church, known as Saphan Lueang, before they were found accommodation at other hotels owned by the Mandarin group.
The Mandarin hotel Bangkok comprises two buildings. The fire started in the rear building.
Bang Rak police said Prasit Pantharuea, a 32-year-old room attendant, was the first to see the fire as flames spread through the hotel's fitness room, and he spread the alarm.
Security officers and other staff exhausted 10 fire extinguishers trying to put out the blaze but to no avail and the flames quickly spread along the hotel's carpeted floors.
About 40 fire engines were called to the scene. Because of the lack of a sprinkler system it was four hours before the fire was declared out.
Danish tourist Martin Andersen, 27, from Copenhagen, said there was no fire alarm. His girlfriend Gitte Christensen, 27, called the situation ''chaotic''.
''This has been handled very, very badly in my opinion. There is just nobody in charge,'' said George Adigun, 39, a commodities consultant from London. ''There is no evacuation point. No one from the hotel has come out to tell us what is happening.''
Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin said City Hall yesterday asked the Thai Hotel Association to come up with measures to ensure safe structures and effective warning systems in hotels, particularly in old hotel buildings.
Source from BANGKOK POST and AP |
