The project engineer supervising the improvement of Siam Commercial Bank's (SCB) fire protection system at its head office insisted on Friday that all workers either killed or injured in Sunday night's gas leak had received proper work safety training.
Jirawat Prempri, 29, told police investigators that workers were trained, amid rumours that he might face arrest in connection with the deadly incident.
Eight people died and seven were injured after a fire extinguishing device released pyrogen gas in a document security vault in the basement of the SCB Park Building.
Mr Jirawat, who works for Mega Planet Co, the firm contracted to improve SCB's fire protection system, which later sub-contracted the job to other firms, voluntarily visited Phahon Yothin police station along with his lawyer, Suriyes Songmeechai.
However, on Thursday, Nethis Prasertwong, director of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration's (BMA) Region 2 labour protection and welfare office, revealed that a safety officer of Mega Planet admitted that nine new workers had been sent to the SCB site without being properly trained on work safety precautions.
As a result, Mega Planet may be in violation of Section 14 of the 2011 work safety, hygiene and environment act stating that employees be informed of possible workplace dangers, he said. The office will conclude its investigation and proceed with further legal action after it receives additional documents from Mega Planet by Tuesday.
Mr Suriyes, however, told police that Mega Planet's work safety officer actually informed the BMA's labour protection and welfare office that all the new workers had been trained in work safety before they were sent to work at the SCB site.
He said he did not understand why the media reported that the company had admitted that the nine employees were not trained.
In another development, Engineering Institute of Thailand president Suchatvee Suwansawat said that an inspection of the scene of Sunday's incident indicated that the victims had likely died of pyrogen exposure.
Exposure to pyrogen, a form of fine dust particle, for a period longer than 15 minutes can block the respiratory system, resulting in an abnormal heart rate and insufficient blood and oxygen reaching the brain, eventually causing death, said Mr Suchatvee.
