Post by Soutpeel on Jun 7, 2016 19:01:05 GMT 7
Engineers Cast Doubt on Police ‘Light Bulb’ Explanation For Deadly School Fire
CHIANG RAI — Sixteen days after 17 schoolgirls died in a fire in their dormitory, which lacked smoke detectors or fire alarms, engineers and at least one parent expressed doubt today about the police version of what happened – and no one has yet to be held accountable.
A police spokesman said a report from regional forensic examiners said the May 22 fire at the Pitakkiat Witthaya School in Chiang Rai started with a light located on the first floor. Spokesman Kritsana Pattanacharoen said investigators still needed more time to deliberate before they could file any charges.
According to police Maj. Gen. Sun Sukwat, who headed the forensic examination, the threading of a light bulb overheated and melted. The light then fell onto clothing belonging to the children which readily fueled the fire.
A father of one one of the victims isn’t buying it.
“The generosity of people from across the country who donated has been great,” Winai Pisailert, who lost his 11-year-old daughter, said . “But I still doubt about the cause of the fire.”
The national engineering association was also skeptical the fire was caused by a melting light bulb unscrewing itself.
Pichaya Chantranuwat headed a team from the Council of Engineers who conducted an inspection of the burned dormitory after the fire.
According to him, all other light bulbs in use at the school were up to standards and installed not long ago. Also, he wrote online, none of the children would have died had there been basic, legally mandated safety equipment in the building.
“If they installed smoke alarms, which could detect smoke from fire in the very first minute, all children would have been safe,” Pichaya wrote on his Facebook.
All 17 students, hospital examiners concluded, were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning which meant they were already dead when the fire reached their room.
After declining to identify the fire’s cause for two weeks, police provided the light bulb explanation on Friday, the same day national police authorities traveled to Chiang Rai, and a press event was staged at which Chiang Rai Gov. Boonsong Techamaneesathit posed for photos handing over donations to the families of the dead girls.
www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1465282313&typecate=06§ion=
CHIANG RAI — Sixteen days after 17 schoolgirls died in a fire in their dormitory, which lacked smoke detectors or fire alarms, engineers and at least one parent expressed doubt today about the police version of what happened – and no one has yet to be held accountable.
A police spokesman said a report from regional forensic examiners said the May 22 fire at the Pitakkiat Witthaya School in Chiang Rai started with a light located on the first floor. Spokesman Kritsana Pattanacharoen said investigators still needed more time to deliberate before they could file any charges.
According to police Maj. Gen. Sun Sukwat, who headed the forensic examination, the threading of a light bulb overheated and melted. The light then fell onto clothing belonging to the children which readily fueled the fire.
A father of one one of the victims isn’t buying it.
“The generosity of people from across the country who donated has been great,” Winai Pisailert, who lost his 11-year-old daughter, said . “But I still doubt about the cause of the fire.”
The national engineering association was also skeptical the fire was caused by a melting light bulb unscrewing itself.
Pichaya Chantranuwat headed a team from the Council of Engineers who conducted an inspection of the burned dormitory after the fire.
According to him, all other light bulbs in use at the school were up to standards and installed not long ago. Also, he wrote online, none of the children would have died had there been basic, legally mandated safety equipment in the building.
“If they installed smoke alarms, which could detect smoke from fire in the very first minute, all children would have been safe,” Pichaya wrote on his Facebook.
All 17 students, hospital examiners concluded, were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning which meant they were already dead when the fire reached their room.
After declining to identify the fire’s cause for two weeks, police provided the light bulb explanation on Friday, the same day national police authorities traveled to Chiang Rai, and a press event was staged at which Chiang Rai Gov. Boonsong Techamaneesathit posed for photos handing over donations to the families of the dead girls.
www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1465282313&typecate=06§ion=
