Phuket Vice Governor Snith Sriwihok led the excise, which was also overseen by Mongkol Temrat, a Senior Policy and Planning Analyst at the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office Phuket Provincial Office (DDPM-Phuket).
Scores of officials and other government employees took part in the drill, which was held to train emergency-response teams and teach those working ni the building how to react in such situations.
V/Gov Snith explained that the exercise was held to improve response times, to ensure that firefighters were adequately trained in using the appropriate firefighting equipment and to train fire marshals how to make sure all people evacuated from the building had been accounted for.
“The activity helped to make officers and emergency-response crews understand the primary causes of fire and how it can spread, and the damage it ca cause,” V/Gov Snith said.
“It also taucht them how to help themselves and others,” he added.
“Failure to understand these things always leads to unnecessary loss of property, and can lead to loss of life,” he said.
Meanwhile, the new Provincial Hall comissioned with a government budget of B450 million remains incomplete on the south side of Phuket Town, casting a large shadow near Suan Luang, also known as Rama IX Park, as the main contractor has run out of funds to complete its part of the project.
No progress on the new building has been made since June last year, despite about B280 million already spent on the project. (See story here.)
New contractors are being sought to complete the project, which passed the 50% complete milestone in June 2016. (See stories here and here.)