{
    "success": true,
    "data": {
        "id": 1550096,
        "msgid": "thai-fire-exposes-safety-loopholes-1447893297",
        "date": "1997-07-14 00:00:00",
        "title": "Thai fire exposes safety loopholes",
        "author": null,
        "source": "REUTERS",
        "tags": null,
        "topic": null,
        "summary": "Thai fire exposes safety loopholes BANGKOK (Reuter): Thailand's worst hotel fire, which has already claimed at least 90 lives, has triggered a public outcry over a lack of enforcement of safety measures for high-rise and public buildings. Irate Thais voiced their anger on phone-in radio shows amid reports that locked fire exits at the 400-room Royal Jomtien Resort Hotel contributed to the high death toll.",
        "content": "<p>Thai fire exposes safety loopholes<\/p>\n<p>BANGKOK (Reuter): Thailand's worst hotel fire, which has<br>\nalready claimed at least 90 lives, has triggered a public outcry<br>\nover a lack of enforcement of safety measures for high-rise and<br>\npublic buildings.<\/p>\n<p>Irate Thais voiced their anger on phone-in radio shows amid<br>\nreports that locked fire exits at the 400-room Royal Jomtien<br>\nResort Hotel contributed to the high death toll.<\/p>\n<p>The fire Friday at the beach resort of Pattaya, about 200 km<br>\nsoutheast of Bangkok, is the second major disaster in recent<br>\nyears where blocked emergency exits appear to have trapped dozens<br>\nof hapless victims.<\/p>\n<p>About 200 teenage workers died in May 1993 after fire broke<br>\nout inside a locked warehouse at the Kader Industrial toy factory<br>\nat Nakhon Pathom just north of Bangkok.<\/p>\n<p>In both incidents, the hotel and factory owners ignored safety<br>\nstandards and blocked emergency exits to protect their property<br>\nfrom theft.<\/p>\n<p>\"Whatever excuses were given by the hotel management (for<br>\nlocking the exits) were unacceptable,\" a member of the National<br>\nSafety Committee said yesterday, adding that the Royal Jomtien<br>\nResort hotel should also not have been allowed to have indoor<br>\nfire exits on upper floors located in the middle of the 16-story<br>\nbuilding.<\/p>\n<p>Some 136 tourists and hotel guests died in northeast Korat<br>\nprovince in August 1993 after the Royal Plaza Hotel collapsed<br>\nlike a pack of cards. Officials blamed the collapse on earlier<br>\nunlicensed modification of the building.<\/p>\n<p>A director of the Royal Jomtien Resort hotel conceded<br>\nyesterday that the ill-fated building, built in the late 1980s,<br>\nwas not equipped with sprinkler and smoke detecting systems. He<br>\nsaid the hotel's fire alarms also failed to go off Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Interior Minister Snoh Thienthong on Saturday blamed the hotel<br>\nmanagement for storing cooking gas tanks in indoor kitchens.<\/p>\n<p>Police said a gas explosion near the hotel's ground floor<br>\ncafeteria triggered the fire.<\/p>",
        "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/thai-fire-exposes-safety-loopholes-1447893297",
        "image": ""
    },
    "sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
    "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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