20130124 Thailand Students flee fire in Korat tutorial centre
Thailand Jan 24 2013 “Building” “Schools”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured more than 10
Students flee fire in Korat tutorial centre
Updated: 2013-01-25-11:27
A relieved survivor walks away with his mother from the scene of a fire that broke out in a building housing a tutorial centre in Muang district of Nakhon Ratchasima yesterday.
Firefighters help evacuate students to safety. PRASIT TANGPRASERT
About 150 people, mostly high school students who were attending tutorial classes in downtown Nahkon Ratchasima, had a frightening morning yesterday.
At about 10 am smoke engulfed the four-storey Kru Jaew centre in the commercial heart of the province.
A teacher at the centre, who requested anonymity, said she was teaching a maths class on the second floor when the room began to fill with smoke.
The students on the upper floors ran up to the top of the building and waved for help. Some of them passed out from inhaling smoke as they scrambled to leave the building.
Firefighters erected a ladder to help students stranded on the upper floors. The fire took about 40 minutes to control.
27 students were admitted to two local hospitals to be treated for smoke inhalation. Six were discharged after their conditions improved.
It was unclear where the fire broke out. Police suspect it was caused by an electrical short circuit.
The building operator claimed to have heard a bang – which police think could have been an power transformer exploding – before the fire.
Padetsuek Chotiklang, deputy director of the Provincial Primary Education Zone 1 Office, said the tutorial centre has operated for 10 years without a permit.
Mr Padetsuek estimates that about 150 tutorial centres have opened in Education Zone 1, which covers Nakhon Ratchasima and its surrounding provinces.
A third of these are thought to be operating illegally.
Websource:Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/easier-stuff/299598/students-flee-fire-in-korat-tutorial-centre
Date:2013-01-25
Country:Thailand