Police focus on negligence in bank gas leak

Police focus on negligence in bank gas leak

Bank faults contractors for 8 head office deaths

Eight people suffocated to death and seven barely escaped with their lives from the SCB headquarters on Sunday night. (Post Today photo)
Eight people suffocated to death and seven barely escaped with their lives from the SCB headquarters on Sunday night. (Post Today photo)

Police have cited negligence as one possible cause of a deadly accident at the head office of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) in the capital on Sunday night.

Eight people died and seven were injured after a fire extinguishing device released pyrogen aerosol gas in a document security vault in the basement of SCB Park Building on Ratchadaphisek Road. The chemical is intended to deplete oxygen, which possibly caused their deaths.

Five died at the scene and three others later died in hospital. Of the eight fatalities, seven were employees and one was a security guard. 

The accident occurred about 9.30pm in the basement of SCB's head office as the employees were working to improve the building's chemical fire extinguishing system. 

Metropolitan Police Bureau acting commissioner Sanit Mahathaworn yesterday said police are trying to find out whether the chemical release was caused by negligence. He added that SCB had contracted a company to do the job and the firm in turn subcontracted the job.

It is possible the subcontracted company may have lacked the requisite skills and was not up to the task, Pol Lt Gen Sanit said, adding that eight people have been called in for questioning and if the results of the forensic examination point to human error, those involved will be charged with carelessness causing deaths. 

The bodies of the victims in a fatal chemical leak at SCB's head office are covered as rescuers prepare to move them for autopsies. (Photo by Krit Promsaka na Sakolnakorn)

Pol Maj Gen Charoen Srisasalak, chief of Metropolitan Police Division 2, said Phahon Yothin police had questioned 10 people yesterday -- three SCB employees who were at the scene on Sunday night, and seven relatives of the dead victims. 

Investigators reported that Mega Planet Co had been contracted to instal the fire prevention system, but another company was subcontracted to complete the work.

The sub-contractor, building designers and safety engineers would also be summoned to testify. He said police will spend about a week gathering evidence before they can establish the cause of the accident.

SCB blamed the accident on the contractors, who had been working to upgrade the building's chemical fire-extinguisher system but mistakenly set it off, releasing a chemical retardant designed to starve any fire of oxygen. "The work may have triggered the pyrogen aerosol which, once it works, will decrease oxygen. That could have caused people's injuries and deaths," the bank said in a statement.

SCB president Yon Phokhasap said the building and other property sustained no damage, adding that an upgrade to the fire extinguishing system is under way, changing from the pyrogen-based system to a nitrogen-based one.

Speaking after inspecting the scene, Pol Lt Col Bundit Pradabsook, vice-president of the Association of Siamese Architects under Royal Patronage, said that workers may have drilled into a concrete wallreleasing dust particles during the upgrade work, which might have activated a smoke detection sensor and then set off the pyrogen aerosol. This system is highly sensitive to small dust particles, apart from smoke, he said.

In a second statement, SCB said it will offer the families of the dead victims 100,000 baht each, and provide 30,000 baht to help the injured.

Relatives weep at the Police General Hospital's Institute of Forensic Medicine as they identify the body of Wirat Deedpim, one of eight people killed. (Photo by Apichart Jinakul)

Suchatvee Suwansawat, president of the Engineering Institute of Thailand (EIT), raised three questions after inspecting the scene.

"Why did the fire extinguishing system operate without a fire? Why could the victims not leave the room? And why did it cause deaths when the device producer claims on its website the chemical is not severely toxic and will not eliminate oxygen?" he said.

However, a fire fighting expert said dust normally does not activate the extinguishing system unless the system itself is faulty. Fire prevention and extinguishing technology which uses pyrogen is very advanced. But it is far more costly to instal than a normal fire hydrant system.

The benefit of the pyrogen-deploying system is that it is an effective and less messy method of dousing fires in a tightly-contained environment, such as a document storage room. It does not cause damage to documents, which commonly occurs with the use of water, according to the expert.

But pyrogen technology can be deadly if people who come into contact with the system, including rescuers, do not know enough about how it works. Rescuers who access a pyrogen-exposed chamber must be equipped with oxygen-supplement tanks.

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