The Bangkok Fire

The news about the Santika Bangkok nightclub fire that killed dozens New Years Eve is terrible, but not surprising. Assuming that it was an accident, it will likely be shown that the cause was a lack of safety standards in the building that was facilitated by a bribe or two. According to the news reports, that is already under investigation by Thai authorities.

In 1975, when my wife and I arrived in Bangkok to begin a three year stint at the American Embassy, we stayed for a few weeks at the New Imperial Hotel around the corner. It was called the New Imperial Hotel because the previous Imperial Hotel had burned down a couple of years previous with great loss of life. The story was still fresh that as the fire raged, hotel owners were having to negotiate a price with the firemen to put out the flames.

A few years later, after we had left Bangkok, the infamous Grace Hotel on Soi Nana burned down again with great loss of life. The hotel had been a notorious pick up place for Thai hookers and their foreign customers.

In a country like Thailand, where corruption is so endemic, safety standards in buildings and roads are often ignored as money passes hands between builders and inspectors. The result has been world-class potholes and tragically, buildings with high occupancy that burn easily. What happened New Years Eve is sometimes the result.

Not having been back to Thailand since 1982, I would have hoped that things had changed since those days. It seems, however, that is not the case.