More details have emerged about one of the saddest stories of the year, the Chiang Rai dorm fire that killed 17 female students on Sunday evening.
A faulty florescent light in the dorm is believed to be the cause of the fatal fire, which left 5 girls injured at the northern charity school. Pieces of a fluorescent tube light melted and fell onto piles of clothing, starting the fire at in Pitakkiat Witthaya School, Chiang Rai’s Wiang Pa Pao district.
The school is run by Phanthakit Suksan Foundation and most of its students are from poor families and local hill tribes in Chiang Rai and nearby Chiang Mai.
The fire began on the first floor and most of the students were asleep on the second floor of the 2-story building.
Some of the girls were in the bathroom and rushed to alert the teachers and other students about the fire. The teachers began trying to get everyone out of the building but some of the students thought it was a prank and tried to go back to sleep.
As the fire began to blaze, their regular paths out of the building became blocked.
Several children suffocated from the smoke and were unconscious as the fire spread to the second story, causing the ceiling to collapse on them, according to Pol Maj Gen Sant Sukwaj, commander of the 5th Police Forensic Science Centre.
He noted that, because this was not an electrical fire or short circuit, the building’s circuit breakers did not respond and were not responsible, according to the Bangkok Post.
The deceased girls were between the ages of five and 13 years old. Everyone that was in the building has been accounted for as of today.
All of the 21 girls that survived the fire did so by climbing out of the female dorm late Sunday night on ropes made of blankets, sheets or actual rope fashioned by their teacher.
Five of those girls suffered injuries including burns and injuries sustained while climbing and falling.
Of the injured girls, three had minor injuries and were treated and released from Wiang Pa Pao Hospital in Chiang Rai. The other two are in Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital. A five-year-old has suffered burns to 23 percent of her body and a 9-year-old is on a ventilator due to smoke inhalation.
Both are expected to recover.
The families of the fire’s victims and the injured with receive compensation from the school’s insurance policy. According to The Nation, the families of the deceased will each receive THB200,000 and at least THB10,000 to each of the injured.
