Fire damages three stories of SCB head office, fire fighter killed
The Nation February 8, 2015 6:48 am
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the Siam Commercial Bank headquarters in Bangkok late Saturday. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
A massive fire broke out on the tenth floor of the Siam Commercial Bank and quickly spread to the eleventh and ninth floor late Saturday night before it was put out early Sunday. One fire fighter suffocated.
The fire broke out on the tenth floor of the 37-floor Zone A building of the SCB Park at 10 pm. Fire fighters and fire engines could control the blaze by 1:10 am Sunday.
Police said the body of a voluntary fire fighter, Decha Duanchana, was found on the seventh floor at 4:50 am. He went missing shortly after the first teams of fire fighter were sent up to the tenth floor.
Fire fighting officials said about ten fire fighters of the first groups passed out because their oxygen tanks ran out but they were rescued in time, except Decha who went missing.
Initially SCB officials said the room, where the blaze started, was used for storing documents. But SCB CEO Dr. Vichit Suraphongchai said no important documents were stored there and the room was mostly used for document copying.
He said the fire would not affect SCB's documents in the King’s Mongkut Institute of Technology embezzlement case.
Vichit said the cause of the fire was still not known.
Interior Minister Anupong Paochina rushed to the scene shortly after the fire. He said the cause of the fire had yet to be established by forensic detection officers.
