Dear Readers,
I am pissed.
I am pissed at the whole situation, and pissed because Jamie lost her friend Win in the Santika tragedy.
Imagine this, December 31st 2008, a Goodbye Santika party, with performance from Joey-Boy and a band called Burn.
Party goers were handed sparklers to celebrate the new year. Santika was a chic happening club, a club where tourist went, and higher-than-normal folk – society people partied. Outside the club, you could see a line of expensive cars – ferraris, minis, bmws, and mercs. I went there once with Neha, and have to say, I liked it. Yes it was the typical Thai style dance club – with tables on the dancefloor, but there was a little dance floor room near the stage (from what I remember) so any club with a dance floor gets a two thumb approval from me.
But what we really overlook when we do go clubbing, are fire exits, the presence of sprinklers, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, emergency lights…I guess we either assume that nothing bad would happen to us – or – a club would obviously have all these safety measures because they have a club liscence. – right?
That law of logic basically goes to shit in Thailand. That whole list? fire exits…sprinklers..fire extinguishers…- not adequate.
Santika decorated their stage with normal curtains – not fire retardant ones. Fire extinguishers? – One.
Sprinklers? – none that I know of. Fire exits? – 3 but 2 back exits were only known to the staff – not even the fire fighters knew about it.
So what really happened that night? Its a piece by piece put together, but the rough idea was that about around 12:20-35ish the band BURN celebrated the new year by using FIREWORKS (not stage fireworks) on stage, and immediately the ceiling (that was made of soundproof material) caught on fire. Some revellers thought it was even part of the show, but when the ceiling started to fall on them (not a whole chunk at first, more like ashes) a panic broke out. Somehow, people on the 2nd floor realised the fire before people on the ground floor, and everyone was rushing to the main exit, so that some deaths were caused by the stampede.
I read here and there, and one man said he jump kicked the glass windows on the ground floor, and only made a small hole and felt so helpless didn’t know how to get out. Worse – on the 2nd floor the windows had grills.
The fire was further amplified because of the bottles of alcohol on the main dance floor (remember, Thai clubs have bar tables on the dance floor, thats how Thais party, head bobbing and minimal booty shaking around their bar table.) so there were mini explosions from the alcohol bottles.
1,000 people, stampeding out of the 3 storey building, mainly using the 2 metre wide exit.
It took the fire fighters 2 hours to bring the blaze under control. Total – 64 people dead, 240+ injured.
Of the 64, there were 17 bodies that were burnt beyond recognition – charred. When they couldn’t locate Jamie’s friend Win, by the 2nd day, I had a strong gut feeling that it was bad news. His mother had to fly in from Myanmar for DNA testing and they found him, his girlfriend Laika and his friend Mark all near the back exits.
After googling alot about the incident, my mother found a post on thaivisa.com, someone who similarly was missing 4 friends. Then on a facebook group, I saw the same post, but the photo that was shown to look for the missing people did not include Win, so I didn’t think it was him.
Turns out, after giving Jamie the link, she pointed out that the people in the photo included Mark and Laika, but Win wasn’t there (maybe he was taking the photo).
So this was his story:
“We believe the girl was hit by debris from the roof, and her bf tried to help, but either passed out, or he and my bro managed to get her to the rear exit before passing out. Unfortunately, when the rescue teams came, they only went in from the front… As for the last friend, apparently he had already managed to get to safety, but didn’t see any of us, so went back in… He was found in the vicinity of the entrance, only a few meters from the 3…”
He was 26, a MBA student at ABAC, and Jamie’s friend/mentor (in the Debate club) for the past 4 years. He was also Dianna’s close friend, so its devastating for the both of them. I didn’t know him, but I always remember Jamie raving about him, how he is such a nice guy.
And the way he died, trying to save his unconscious girlfriend, most probably being knocked out conscious from the falling ceiling, or succumbing to the clouds of smoke…and the most UPSETTING thing – seeking refuge/hope by circumventing the crowds – going to the back exit and having it overlooked by fire fighters.
I’m PISSED! Pissed at the lack of safety regulations in Thailand. Santika did not hold a club liscence – they only had a liscence to run a food stall. FOOD STALL. Bribery is how they got away with it, probably paying police/inspectors 100,000 baht a month (at least). In total, Santika made an estimate of 60 million baht per year in revenue.
This is how Thailand works – its called systemic corruption – corruption that is more than just one bar owner and one tainted cop, its a whole SYSTEM of police, government regulators and business owners. I recently spoke to a friend who opened a pub/restaurant near her home. I asked her if she had proper liscencing, and she told me quite frankly that she doesn’t, she knows a high police official in that area, and so pays a bribe of 1,000 baht per month to the police.
1,000 baht, can you believe that?
Days like this I am very disgusted to live here, and there is a facebook group that now shares places to boycott and be aware of when clubbing. Here is a link showing the fire exits for a popular gay club called DJ STATION : Look at this crazy ladder exit.
You know, I was watching Oprah’s Best Life – the Spiritual episode, and one interviewer said he was stuck in an airplane crash -Dante’s Inferno and he saw aura lights leaving the passengers’ bodies. Some were bright some were dim, each aura had a different strength to it. I’d like to think that Jamie’s friend Win’s aura left very bright, just from the photos that I saw of him, all the posts his friends wrote about him, and stories from Jamie and Grego, I know that he was a fun loving individual, always caring and selfless – this was especially illustrated at his heroic attempt to save his girlfriend – it is a damn dirty shame that the back exit wasn’t adequate for them to be rescued.
To see his facebook dedication page, please click here
May all the victims of Santika’s inferno find peace in their afterlife, know that they have touched many lives and are deeply missed,
Stacy
News articles:
Police: Many Victims were Foreigners
Rescuers helpless as flames engulf revellers
Teenagers flock to Santika to take photos of “ghosts” (this link is a bit freaky.)
My Life in Bangkok 