Guests were injured jumping from balconies to narrowly escape a fire that consumed luxury villas on Koh Kut this past weekend.
A doctor and former actress – both guests at the Soneva Kiri resort on the gulf resort island – recounted yesterday their escapes from flaming villas after a fire broke out there.
“We were sleeping when I heard my mother yelling from downstairs that there was a huge fire. When we rushed out to see, we saw flames gutting the residence from the middle, and the blaze had already spread to the stairs,” Jiraporn Arunakul, a Ramathibodi Hospital pediatrician, wrote on her widely followed Facebook page.
Jiraporn said her family had to escape the two-story villa by climbing over the balcony, from which Jiraporn fell four meters, crashing to the ground so hard she lost consciousness and injured.
Jiraporn fractured one of her vertebrae. She also required more than 10 stitches to her head and face. Her husband, a surgeon, injured his hand. Their daughter was unhurt.
Thamolpan “Yam” Panuchitputtiwong, a former actress, was also staying in another nearby villa. Five months pregnant, Yam had to escape the fire by climbing out of a bathroom. Her family members had to go over the balcony in the same way Jiraporn did.
“The villa was finished within 10 minutes,” Yam said. “It was the worst experience of my life.”
Hours after their stories went viral, the Soneva Kiri resort issued a statement confirming the fire at its Villa 63. However, the blaze did not spread to other parts of the resort and island, it said.
The resort went on to say the cause of the fire was not yet known, and an investigation was underway.
The management team insisted that it “adhere to the highest safety standards,” with smoke detectors installed in every room – a statement which Jiraporn opposed.
“No one in my family heard any signal. There was no working water sprinkler nor a smoke detector,” Jiraporn wrote on Tuesday morning.
Soneva Kiri comprises 34 ultra-spacious pool villas, ranging in size from one to six bedrooms. A stay there is exorbitantly priced, ranging from THB50,000 to THB300,000 per night.
Yam said she has paid nearly THB1 million for the four-day and three-night stay. She demanded clear information from the hotel team.
“Where are your executives? I have only talked to the General Manager and Financial Advisor, who did not quite answer our questions,” Yam said.
