20121226 Thailand Short-circuit sets Phuket hotel ablaze
Thailand Dec 26 2012 “Building”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Short-circuit sets Phuket hotel ablaze
Updated: 2012-12-27-01:00
A five-star hotel in Phuket caught fire yesterday morning, causing Bt10 million in losses, though nobody was injured.
Police said the fire broke out at about 5am on the first floor of the three-storey wooden building, before spreading to the second and third floors of the Royal Phawadee Village Hotel on Patong Beach. Ten fire trucks were used to bring the blaze under control after about an hour and a half.
Hotel owner Claude De Caissey, 60, who is also the French honorary consul in Phuket, said 13 rooms in the hotel were damaged, six seriously. He estimated the losses at about Bt10 million.
A security guard at the hotel said he saw sparks at the electrical control panel on the first floor and tried to extinguish them, but the fire spread quickly, burning a PVC pipe and travelling to the higher floors of the building.
He said he was unable to bring the fire under control despite using five fire extinguishers. He then decided to wake up the guests and get them out of the premises before calling the police and the Patong Municipality’s disaster prevention and mitigation office.
Police believe that the fire was possibly caused by a short circuit, though inspection is pending.
Websource: The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Short-circuit-sets-Phuket-hotel-ablaze-30196869.html