PHUKET: An expert investigation into a blaze at Phuket's Tiger Discotheque in which four people perished is critical of the use of flammable material in the building.

It also finds fault with the discotheque's exit signs and the lack of provision for escape through some exit doors.

The report by investigators of the blaze on August 17 at the disco in Soi Bangla, Patong, is published today in full for the first time on Phuketwan.

The 10 pages are co-authored by Wichien Budyabuntoon, president of the Building Society Inspectors and Officers Association, and Smith Obayawat, president of the Association of Siamese Architects.

Officers from both organisations checked the disco building immediately after the blaze, which left four people dead and 11 injured.

Police in Patong have the BSA and ASA report and are now waiting on a second report of an investigation by the National Office of Forensic Science.

That report is likely to shed more light on the cause of the blaze.

The BSA and ASA report says it appears the blaze began in the roof of the building, about the middle of the upper dance floor. On the ground floor is a collection of bars.

The report says that highly flammable foam insulation was used in the discotheque. The foam was not mixed with concrete to make it less combustible.

The report also notes that fire extinguishers that should have been fixed no higher than 1.5 metres about the ground were fixed at a height of 1.8 metres.

Some of the exit doors also had inadequate means of allowing people to escape from the upper floor, the report says, with ladders attached to walls instead of stairways.

Exit signs should be capable of remaining lit for for at least one hour after a power failure. This was not the case at the Tiger disco, the report said.

Powerlines should have been kept safe inside tubular piping. The lines were not properly protected, the report said.

There was no fire alarm system in the building, the BSA and ASA report notes.

Pubs and other entertainment venues should have an evacuation drill once a year, the report adds. It's not known whether drills were held at the Tiger Discotheque.

The four badly charred bodies were found between three and six metres from a fire escape, says the report.

The report noted that Tiger Group management were disinclined to provide information in a direct manner to the investigators during their visit to Phuket.

Tourists Michael Tzouvanni, 24, from Britain, and Emmanuel Becard, 30, from France, were killed with Thais Dongporn Budkor, 32, and Nipawat Sutasorn, 36.

Eleven people were injured. The most seriously burned patron, Benjamin Tallanotte, 30, has flown home to France for further treatment.