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Toilet hell for trapped Singaporean

makapaaa

Alfrescian (Inf)
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Jan 4, 2009
BANGKOK NIGHTCLUB FIRE
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Toilet hell for trapped Singaporean
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Singaporean Adrian Ou was trapped in a basement toilet of SantikaPub with 50 others for an hour on New Year's Eve while a fire raged on outside. -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->Santika Pub was always a must-stop destination on his trips to Bangkok and it was no different on Mr Adrian Ou's recent trip there. The visit to the pub on New Year's Eve, however, turned into a nightmare when a fire broke out. He was trapped in the basement toilet for an hour, not knowing if he would come out alive.
The 23-year-old StarHub logistics executive was introduced to the upmarket club on his first holiday in Bangkok three years ago and loved it for its young, energetic crowd. It was popular with affluent young Thais.
He and two friends from Singapore were in Thailand for an eight-day holiday. They heard the famous club was closing down and wanted to visit it one more time on New Year's Eve.
There would be a countdown party ominously named 'Goodbye Santika', so he and one of his two friends, Mr Melvin Lee, 19, made their way to the two-storey nightclub at about 10pm. There were already about 800 revellers there but they found a table near the stage and were joined by six Thai friends.
As shouts of 'Happy New Year' erupted at midnight, the live cover band Burn took to the stage.
Just after Burn kick-started its second song with a spray of pyrotechnics, Mr Ou said his face started feeling very hot. He added that many people were not aware something was amiss until one-quarter of the ceiling had caught fire. 'People started running out, but the fire spread rapidly,' Mr Ou recalled.
He said Mr Lee was in front of him and managed to get out but when it came to his turn, he gave way to some women first. This caused him to be pushed farther away from the entrance and down a flight of stairs into the basement.
He wanted to run back up, but part of the ceiling came crashing down, hitting some people.
'A bouncer shouted at us not to run back up,' he said. More bad luck awaited Mr Ou when another part of the ceiling collapsed near the basement, sealing off his escape route. Fumes started wafting in, choking him and some others.
There was no choice but to retreat farther in - into the men's toilet. He reckoned about 50 others were there with him, packing it to the brim. They closed the door.
'There were more people outside and I could hear them knocking but no one wanted to open the door because of the fumes...Then the knocking stopped.'
Inside, patrons said what they thought would be final goodbyes to loved ones on their cellphones.
Mr Ou himself was more focused on breathing through a wet towel and did not make any calls.
Bouncers led the group in Buddhist chants and told them to stay calm. Their ordeal came to an end when a fireman burst into the toilet and asked them to follow him. Mr Ou remembers stepping over more than 30 bodies at the entrance. Carolyn Quek
 
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