Pattaya’s fire brigade
works to extinguish the blaze atop the Apex Hotel on Second Road.
Boonlua Chatree
The fire alarms never sounded when a small blaze broke out at
Pattaya’s Apex Hotel, and although many guests were alerted to the fire,
some guests were not and remained sleeping until staff began knocking on
doors hours later.
Eleven fire units were called to the Second Road budget hotel around
1:30 a.m. March 20 to extinguish flames that engulfed a storage room on
the top floor of the seven-story building. Firefighters took about an
hour to quell the blaze.
The room was littered with used mattresses, beds, electrical appliances
and documents, all of which fed the flames and caused about 300,000 baht
damage. An electrical short is being blamed for the fire.
No one was hurt, but some in the hotel never knew their hotel was on
fire.
An American guest said fire alarms never sounded and a hotel source
pinned down by the Pattaya Mail confirmed the alarms were not working.
The hotel guest said he was more alarmed by the fact that none of the
hotel’s staff awakened him until 5 a.m., nearly three hours after the
flames were put out.
Management at the Apex Hotel declined to acknowledge numerous phone
calls and interview requests. Hotel fires remain a sensitive topic in
Pattaya.
In 1997, 91 people at the Royal Jomtien Resort died when a leaking
cooking-gas cylinder ignited in a ground-floor restaurant, sweeping fire
through 12 of the hotel’s 17 floors. The hotel lacked any active
fire-suppression systems, had unpressurized stairwells, missing
self-closers on upper-floor doors and no fire-stoppers in elevator
shafts. Making matters worse, the hotel was stocked with combustible
wood and vinyl furnishings not treated with fire retardants.
Pattaya Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department officials say
high-rise safety has improved immensely since then.
Department Director Saeree Jumpangern told the Pattaya Mail last year
that high rises today are required to have numerous layers of alarms and
fire-fighting systems. Smoke and heat detectors, sprinkler system, fire
alarms, and fire escapes are all mandated by laws toughened after the
1997 fire.
Saeree noted that Pattaya also has a large stock of modern fire-fighting
equipment, with ladder and basket trucks that can extend up to 68
meters. The department also performs weekly inspections and regular
fire-training exercises with hotels, shopping malls and high-rise
residences.
No inspections or drills of the Apex have been publicized in the past
five years.
