Boonmee Potame was resting on her back on Monday evening after work when her phone rang. She did not want to answer because it was a stranger's number. Eventually she did, and a doctor from Pathum Thani hospital told her that her daughter Mim had been rescued from a collapsed building and was in serious condition. “How serious?” she asked. “You’d better come and see her,” was the doctor’s answer.
A vehicle was provided by her employer in Chon Buri province where she works a construction job during the farming off-season. She arrived at Pathum Thani hospital around midnight. Ms Boonmee desperately wanted to talk to her daughter but she was in the Intensive Care Unit and unconscious.
She learned that night that Mim was three months pregnant. She also learned Mim’s husband Thawatchai Suksom, another construction worker at the collapsed U-Place Condominium building site, had died in the tragedy.
Sukanya “Mim” Kotme is 24 years old and from Kamphaeng Phet. Ms Boonmee said her daughter had never been a construction worker until just over a month ago when her 32-year-old brother-in-law, Danai Suksom, invited her and her husband to work at the construction site. Danai was also killed.
“Mim worked in a 7-Eleven convenience store for many years, until a couple of months ago she was looking for a new job and was asked to come to Pathum Thani to work,” Ms Boonmee said.
A nurse at the ICU ward told Bangkok Post Sunday that Mim has now regained consciousness but is not yet able to speak to anyone because she is on an oxygen machine after suffering bruising to her lungs. She is also recovering from a broken clavicle and hip and communicates via handwritten notes. Her unborn child is safe.
Mim does not know her husband is dead, and Ms Boonmee makes sure no reporters or visitors tell her the news.
Klanarong Prabpai, 23, from Amphoe Nang Rong in Buri Ram province, is another survivor. Seven of the workers at the construction site were from Nang Rong. Only two survived. The other Nang Rong survivor jumped from the top of the building seconds before it collapsed. He was the one who phoned the families of the seven workers in Buri Ram who all headed to Pathum Thani immediately.
Mr Klanarong’s mother Prateep Arunsri was at the site from Tuesday morning after travelling from Pattaya where she works as a labourer and masseuse. She was there when her son was finally rescued at 7pm on Tuesday. It was raining hard as he was taken out from under piles of brick and concrete. There were fears at the time he may be drowned had the rescue been delayed.
Mr Klanarong believes the Laung Po Koon amulet he was wearing helped save his life. Unfortunately it was lost under the rubble.
“I was under there for 27 hours. I didn’t know it was that long until someone told me. I fell asleep a couple of times and I thought the amulet might fall from my hand as I took it from my neck and had placed it in my palm to pray. After they clear the ground there and after I leave the hospital, I might have to inquire where it is. It belongs to my ancestors.”
When the building collapsed on Monday, Mr Klanarong was taking a rest with his 16-year-old nephew, also from Nang Rong. The collapse was sudden, he said. His nephew died instantly in the crush, while he was trapped on his back, building rubble inches from his face. The lower part of his body was covered in debris. All around him was darkness. Mr Klanarong said all he could think about was who would take care of his wife and son if he died.
But Mr Klanarong was lucky. He was on the ground floor of the six-storey building, next to an elevator shaft. Rescue workers were able to feed a tube down to him with an oxygen mask attached. This helped him survive for 27 hours as rescue workers drilled through the layers of the stricken building to reach him. His rescue hit the headlines when scores of news photographers took a picture of him being taken out from the rubble on a gurney in the evening drizzle. He was the only person pulled out alive after the collapse.
He is now recovering from fractured ribs and hips and hopes to see his three-year-old son soon.
COMPENSATION PAYMENTS
The rescue mission was wrapped up on Friday and the site is being cleared. In the morning, Pathum Thani governor and local authorities distributed compensation for the workers’ families. The mothers of Ms Sukanya and Mr Klanarong were given 34,000 baht each. There are no worker benefits because they are not registered and do not have contracts. All of them rely on a daily wage of 500 baht.
Ms Sukanya’s mother, Ms Boonmee, said that on Tuesday morning as she stood in the ICU, an unidentified man came to her and said that he represented the owner of the collapsed condominium construction. He gave her 2,000 baht expenses for food and travel.
The relatives of the injured surviving workers refuse to blame anyone for the accident and only hope that they become well enough to return home and work to support their families again.
RESCUE EFFORTS
Prateep Boriboonrat, chief of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation’s Pathum Thani branch, told the Bangkok Post Sunday yesterday that he had not slept since the building collapsed on Monday afternoon.
“When the building collapsed at 4.16pm on Monday, I believe the Ruam Katanyu Foundation went there first at around 5pm, followed by Pathum Thani governor Pongsathorn Sajjachonlapan who coordinated with the chief of Amphoe Klong Luang Administration, the chief of Tambon Klong Hok Administration and us to bring in heavy rescue machinery, other rescue devices and personnel,” he said.
“At the same time, Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha ordered several army battalions to rotate in the rescue mission, along with an army medical unit, an army engineering unit and other military personnel to coordinate between agencies and with the relatives of the construction workers.
“The first day saw around 500 rescue personnel on the ground which was very confusing. We started to organise our plans on Tuesday. The local administrative bodies were very helpful in bringing in basic support such as funds for travel expenses and packed meals for everybody. All of us were trying to work against time to find as many survivors as we could.”
Mr Prateep continued to worked until 2am yesterday after the smell of rotting flesh was reported. However, no more victims were found.
The last body was taken out on Thursday night before the rescue mission was officially wound up on Friday.
There were 39 people at the site when the building collapsed and 25 survived. Two Thai workers and one Cambodian are still being treated at Pathum Thani hospital. Two other injured workers are at Thammasat University hospital.
The bodies of five construction workers from Amphoe Nang Rong have been taken back to their home town with the help of the Ruam Katanyu Foundation. Of the 14 workers who died, 11 were Thai and three Cambodian.
Mr Prateep was yesterday due to attend a funeral ceremony for the three deceased Cambodian workers at a temple in Tambon Klong Hok, Pathum Thani. Their bodies will be cremated and their remains taken by their relatives, construction workers at a nearby site.
Deputy director-general of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Anusorn Kaewkangwarn, praised the coordinated efforts of various authorities in the rescue mission.
“It was an integrated mission performed by the military, emergency medical team, Pathum Thani provincial and local administrative authorities as well as volunteers from the Ruam Katanyu Foundation. We separated our working zones, while integrated our working plans together, against time. I’d say the rescue was efficient and we worked hard from the very first day until today [Friday] to make sure nobody was left under the collapse.”
He speculated that improper bearing capacity was the cause of the collapse and high death toll. “If the building had a proper girder, when it collapsed it would have provided a sort of triangular vacuum space for anybody under the piles and maybe there could have been more survivors.”
On Friday, an engineer from Plook Plang Engineering, the company in charge of the building site, was charged with improper professional conduct resulting in deaths and injuries.