The Nation, Asia News Network
CHIANG RAI, Thailand — All 20 young survivors of a tragic fire at a charity school in Chiang Rai province either climbed or jumped out of the their girls-only dormitory late Sunday night to make their escape.
Another 18 girls lost their lives, with some quickly succumbing to suffocation.
Five of the survivors were injured.
All of the victims from the Pitakiatwittaya School fire were between five and 12 years old.
Police Major-General Sant Sukhavach, who heads the Scientific Crime Detection Centre 5, said yesterday evidence suggested the fire broke out because of a melting fluorescent tube.
“The melting drops fell down on piles of clothes and caused the fire,” Sant said.
One of the survivors, 12-year-old Kwanjira Anantapetch, said the raging blaze was terrifying and had thrown the dormitory into chaos.
“I was so frightened that I could not really remember who was who during the escape. I only knew that I had to rush out of the dormitory,” the girl said.
She and her friend Suchada Kongasa were the first to alert their teacher when the fire broke out at 10.30pm on Sunday.
“We smelled the fire when we were heading to the toilet. So we rushed to our teacher,” Kwanjira said.
The next thing she did was to run through the building and shout “Fire, Fire” inside shared bedrooms. “But not everyone woke up. Some also thought it was a prank,” Kwanjira said.
Student Makhata Taweejirakul said she rushed to check what was happening as soon as she heard someone shouting warnings.
“The blaze was so intense,” she said.
She then ran up the stairs also shouting warnings until she jumped from the second floor of the dormitory to escape the blaze.
Kwanjira said the situation turned very dangerous within minutes of the first warning with smoke inundating bedrooms and parts of the flooring catching fire.
“Our teacher started tying bed sheets together and using it as a rope for children to scale down from the second floor,” Kwanjira said.
She and some other students moved to another room and used a nylon rope to escape from the building.
Kwanjira added that not all the girls knew how to climb and some ended up with injuries.
“Some had their hands cut by the rope and some fell down on the ground,” Kwanjira said, her own left hand in a bandage.
Suchada sae Muang, a 21-year-old teacher, said she tried her best to try to help the students but the fire spread too fast to save everyone.
“She helped children first,” said Rewat Wassana, the school’s manager.
Run by the charitable Siam Ruam Jai Foundation, Pitakiatwittaya School in Chiang Rai’s Wiang Pa Pao district offers free classes to students, more than half of whom are children belonging to “hill tribe” ethnic groups.
Suharit Phumsawan, head of the foundation’s Wiang Pa Pao branch, said he and several volunteers rushed to the school after receiving reports about the fire.
“Our 10-member team and two fire trucks took about two hours to put the blaze under control,” he said, adding that when his team members entered the damaged dormitory, they witnessed heartbreaking scenes.
“As many as 17 kids died inside,” Suharit said.
Ekapan Hankla, one of the team members, said some bodies were charred and apparently had fallen from the second floor.
“It’s the worst fire I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I feel distressed because all victims were just little kids.”
As of press time, officials were still in the process of identifying the victims.
A teacher at the school who identified herself only as “Ja” said parents had already been informed of the tragedy.
The school has insurance policies covering its students providing 200,000 baht ($5,592) to the families of children who were killed. Siam City Insurance will pay at least 3.4 million baht ($950,650) collectively to the 17 families of girls who were killed in the fire and at least 10,000 baht ($279) to each of injured victims.
Pitakkiatwittaya School will be closed for at least a week as it tries to deal with the fire’s aftermath.
Wiang Pa Pao district chief Prasert Jitpleecheep, who rushed to the school in the wake of the fire, said survivors remain shaken.
Mental Health Department’s deputy director-general Dr. Pongkasem Khaimook said his agency would dispatch psychiatrists to help the survivors to cope with the tragedy.
Copyright 2016 the Asia News Network