The state prosecutor filed official criminal charges today against ten people over the accidental activation of the fire extinguishing equipment at SCB headquarters that left eight people dead and seven suffering from injuries related to suffocation on March 14.
Two executives from Mega Planet Co., along with eight others, now face charges of recklessness over the accident.
The defendants include Mega Planet Chairman Napong Suksa-nguan,44, and manager Adisorn Foda, 50. The eight others are engineers and contractors.
All of the accused were at the Ratchadapisek Road Office of the Attorney General to acknowledge the charges against them, according to Thai PBS
The accused are charged because they allegedly did not teach about the fire extinguishing system in the building’s basement. They should have advised the group of workers that were on-site to improve the fire prevention system.
During their work, the workers drilled into the concrete ceiling of the basement and the debris created activated the sensitive, pyrogen-based extinguishing system. It drained the oxygen from the area, resulting in deaths and suffocation injuries.
All of the defendants will be prosecuted in Criminal Court.
SCB blamed the accident on the negligence of the contractor in an earlier statement and that there was no fire or explosion at their building.
The building was open for business as usual soon after the accident. There was little damage inside.
Related:
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8 killed after fire prevention improvements go wrong at SCB headquarters
