NARATHIWAT: A school was among the dozens of buildings heavily damaged by Saturday’s huge fireworks explosion in Sungai Kolok and has been closed for two weeks for repairs.
Soraya Asae, the director of Ban Muno School, said the powerful blast damaged five school buildings and seven houses for teachers. The ceilings of the classrooms collapsed and windows were shattered. Structural damage was also found in the teachers’ housing. The total damage was estimated at 3 million baht, she said.
The school is located about 300 metres from the warehouse where at least a tonne of illegally stored fireworks blew up during a welding mishap on Saturday afternoon, killing 12 people, injuring 121 and damaging 292 buildings in the village of Muno near the Malaysian border.
Ms Soraya said the school would be closed for two weeks, with classes suspended starting from Thursday. Debris, scrap metal, broken glass and other materials scattered around the site will be removed and the damaged buildings and equipment will undergo repairs.
She said the incident happened so suddenly and unexpectedly, there was no time for the school to properly cope with it.
The school director expressed her thanks to Supot Maneeratanachot, director of the Area 2 primary education office, for giving bags of survival gear and some money to the teachers and students as a morale booster.
She said the school had opened a bank account to take donations to be used for the repairs.
Dr Chaiwat Pattanapisalsak, director of the Narathiwat public health office, said teams from the office were visiting residents affected by the explosion.
Dozens of people left homeless by the blast have been staying at a temporary shelter set up on the sports field of the Muno Subdistrict Administrative Organisation.
Health officials have found that the air quality within a 500-metre radius of the explosion site was still good, but the water was not suitable for use or consumption, said Dr Chaiwat.
Police have summoned the owner of the warehouse for questioning, but it remained unclear when he would come in, as he was reportedly on holiday with his family.