At around 8pm on Tuesday (Aug 9), Patong Mayor Chalermsak Maneesri led a team of officials to inspect selected nightclubs for fire safety.
The team, joined by Kathu District Chief Siwat Rawangkul, included officials from the Patong office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM-Patong), police officers and other officials from Patong Municipality.
The officials checked safety measures at entertainment venues along Bangla Rd “with emphasis on fire prevention systems, signs showing entrance/exit doors, fire exits, availability of fire-extinguishing equipment, lighting inside the buildings, and other safety measures”.
While the post-inspection report was supported with pictures of fire alarms, fire extinguishers and fire exits at some of the venues visited, which included well-known nightclubs, Patong Municipality did not report how many venues were visited by officials or whether any of them were found not fully ready for a possible emergency.
Inspections in Patong began after a devastating fire at Mountain B pub in Chon Buri on Aug 5 that killed 16 and injured over 30, some of them seriously.
The blaze began in a roof over a performance stage before it quickly spread to other areas. At least 100 pub-goers were packed inside Mountain B when the fire broke out, prompting them to flee for their lives. Investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the tragedy.
Mountain B owner Pongsiri Panprasong was charged with negligence causing deaths and operating a nightspot without permission. He confessed to both charges and was released on a cash surety of B300,000 by the Pattaya Provincial Court.
At a press conference, he denied reports that some of the doors at the venue were locked at the time of the fire.