No sign of life in the remote Sala Khao fireworks factory, in central Thailand, devastated this afternoon by an explosion of unknown origin. When a roadside assistance group and the police showed up around 4 a.m. local time, the explosion had given way to an impressive silence, punctuated by the crackling of combustion and an inexhaustible column of black smoke.
The workers on the next shift, upon arriving at the scene of the accident distraught, believed that there were no survivors. However, public television later reported that rescue teams had found seven seriously injured people, some of whom had been presumed dead. “There are at least twenty-three dead,” declared the police, initially stunned by the Agramante field. “It is difficult to pinpoint it, because there are human remains scattered throughout the rice fields within a radius of one hundred meters.” More than a dozen would be women, employed in the factory.
The estimate of victims matches the thirty workers who, according to their colleagues, would be inside the premises at the time of the explosion.
The owner, as well as his wife and daughter, would also be among the dead, as confirmed by local police. However, the violent detonation would have caused little damage or personal injury in the nearest inhabited areas, as it was a relatively remote location, a hundred kilometers northwest of Bangkok.
The fireworks factory had to be working at full capacity, due to the proximity of the Chinese New Year next month. It is presumed that it is an accident although right now there is no one in a position to corroborate it or specify its nature. Since Davos, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has called for an investigation into whether the company had the relevant permits and whether there may have been negligence.
According to police chief Torsak Sukmivol, the same factory already registered a fire last November that caused one death and three seriously injured. Between 2012 and 2013, in the same province, there were three fatal accidents in as many rocket and firecracker factories. In one of them, two employees died, in another four and in the third, three, who were also brothers. Among the causes considered, there are usually everything from violations of the smoking ban to sparks from welding work.
In another accident last year – this time in the south, near the border with Malaysia – ten people died and more than a hundred were injured by the explosion in a pyrotechnic articles warehouse during repairs. A hundred houses within a radius of half a kilometer were totally or partially destroyed.
