20230730 Narathiwat fireworks blast toll now 12 dead, 121 injured
Thailand Jul 30 2023 “Building” “Houses” “Warehouses”
Dead : dead more than 10 Burnout : more than 70 Injured : injured more than 10
Narathiwat fireworks blast toll now 12 dead, 121 injured
Updated: 2023-07-30
Some of the 292 houses damaged or totally destroyed by a fireworks explosion at a warehouse in Muno village are seen in Sungai Kolok district, Narathiwat province, on Saturday. (Photo: Abdullah Benjakat)
NARATHIWAT: The death toll from the fireworks explosion at a warehouse in Sungai Kolok district on Saturday is now 12, with 121 injured and 292 houses damaged or totally destroyed, the province’s public relations office announced on its Facebook page on Sunday.
Of the 12 deaths, seven bodies had been taken by relatives for religious rites while the five others were still at Sungai Kolok Hospital, three of them identified and two unidentified.
Of the 121 injured, 111 had returned home. Ten were admitted to Sungai Kolok Hospital for treatment of injuries – with only one in a serious condition.
Sanan Pong-aksorn, the Narathiwat governor, examined the damage from the
explosion which occurred at about 3pm on Saturday at the warehouse at Ban
“We have identified 10 people and found parts of two bodies which we cannot identify yet,” Mr Sanan told a press conference Sunday.
“We are sending to forensics to do DNA tests but primary reports said they were different,” he added.
The governor said the place was initally opened as a grocery shop. The owner then obtained permission to expand it to become a warehouse to store merchandise. The godown was believed to have been used to store fireworks without permission.
The governor said the incident occurred while welding was taking place at Weerawat Panit shop to make shelves. The explosion was believed to have been caused by sparks from the welding work.
“We have issued a summons to the owner of the factory with the charge of negligence, which caused the accident,” said Colonel Suthawet Thareethai, police chief in Muno district.
“We are waiting for him to come,” he said.
Narathiwat police commander, Police Major General Chalermporn Khamkhiew, said shortly before the explosion fire-crackers had been delivered.
“We are investigating if those firecrackers were transported legally or illegally,” he said.
“As of now, we do not see any licence for possession of firecrackers or firecracker sales,” he said.
“We assume the factory has no licence.”
The blast detonated from roughly 1,000 kilogrammes of gunpowder, he said, causing two holes roughly two metres deep and six metres wide.
Most of the residents nearby were unaware fireworks had been stored in the godown. The building doors had been closed most of the time, except when two trucks occasionally arrived to unload merchandise.
The huge blast damaged 292 houses nearby, totally destroying 50 of them.
Officials said a command centre had been established not far from the incident, and authorities had already received 365 complaints from those who had been injured, or had their homes and property damaged.
Wichitchat Udomlarpcharoenkit, a rescue leader from a charity foundation in Sungai Kolok, said when he led about 40 rescuers to the scene they saw only houses and shops ablaze with debris scattered over a wide area. Many vehicles had their tyres flattened by broken objects. Heavy equipment was used to break open the damaged houses to bring out the killed and injured, with help from soldiers and defence volunteers.
Eye witnesses reported a huge boom and the earth shaking Saturday.
“I was playing with my phone inside the house then suddenly I heard a loud, thunderous noise and my whole house shook,” eyewitness Seksan Taesen, who lives 100 metres away from the warehouse, told AFP.
“Then I saw my roof was wide open. I looked outside and I saw houses collapsing and people lying on the ground everywhere. It was chaos.”
Explosions at workshops producing firecrackers and other pyrotechnics are not uncommon in Thailand.
Saturday’s deadly blast comes just five days after 11 people reportedly were injured when a fireworks factory exploded in northern Chiang Mai city.
The kingdom also has a poor safety record in the construction sector and deadly accidents are common.
Last month two people were killed when a bridge under construction in Bangkok collapsed onto traffic.
Web Source: Bangkok Post