PHUKET: Less than a week after the ''towering inferno'' of Phuket's SuperCheap blaze, the island business is rapidly and remarkably returning to normal.
There were no deaths and no serious injuries in Wednesday evening's huge fire, despite some media outlets fearing that ''hundreds'' could have perished.
Priorities remain establishing what caused the blaze and restoring the network of customers and staff, a meeting heard today.
Phuket's Deputy Commander of Police, Colonel Peerayut Karajedee, told the gathering that officers had interviewed six witnesses who saw the blaze begin.
''We cannot say more at this stage because we are waiting on the results of the forensic investigation,'' he said.
Sixty-seven complaints have been made to police as a result of the fire, including people unhappy about damage to houses or customers who had yet to be delivered goods for which they had already paid.
At 6pm tonight, the site will be returned to SuperCheap with the mopping up opertation likely to continue for some time.
Five buildings were destroyed in the blaze and insurance assessors from Hong Kong are checking the value of the insurance payout, Governor Maitree intrusud was told at Phuket Provincial Hall in Phuket City.
One flaw in the insurance, the meeting heard, was that the third party ingredient only covered a payout of three million baht compared to the total of 620 million, most of it covering the five buildings and contents.
The Human Resources chief at SuperCheap, Sirirak KongKum, said that 80 percent of more than 3000 fulltime SuperCheap staff were now back at work at the new market near the razed store or at the 45 local outlets.
Of the 700 Burmese day workers employed, about 100 were known to have taken other jobs, she said.
''We still need everybody back at work,'' she said.
Concerns still remain about the toxicity of the site with nearby residents complaining about water trapped on the property that probably consists of a potent chemical mix.
Nearby residents are still troubled by the smell.
A total of 47 tonnes of garbage from the site has been hauled away and, with no other real options on Phuket, buried with the landfill at the island's Saphan Hin dump.
There were no deaths and no serious injuries in Wednesday evening's huge fire, despite some media outlets fearing that ''hundreds'' could have perished.
Priorities remain establishing what caused the blaze and restoring the network of customers and staff, a meeting heard today.
Phuket's Deputy Commander of Police, Colonel Peerayut Karajedee, told the gathering that officers had interviewed six witnesses who saw the blaze begin.
''We cannot say more at this stage because we are waiting on the results of the forensic investigation,'' he said.
Sixty-seven complaints have been made to police as a result of the fire, including people unhappy about damage to houses or customers who had yet to be delivered goods for which they had already paid.
At 6pm tonight, the site will be returned to SuperCheap with the mopping up opertation likely to continue for some time.
Five buildings were destroyed in the blaze and insurance assessors from Hong Kong are checking the value of the insurance payout, Governor Maitree intrusud was told at Phuket Provincial Hall in Phuket City.
One flaw in the insurance, the meeting heard, was that the third party ingredient only covered a payout of three million baht compared to the total of 620 million, most of it covering the five buildings and contents.
The Human Resources chief at SuperCheap, Sirirak KongKum, said that 80 percent of more than 3000 fulltime SuperCheap staff were now back at work at the new market near the razed store or at the 45 local outlets.
Of the 700 Burmese day workers employed, about 100 were known to have taken other jobs, she said.
''We still need everybody back at work,'' she said.
Concerns still remain about the toxicity of the site with nearby residents complaining about water trapped on the property that probably consists of a potent chemical mix.
Nearby residents are still troubled by the smell.
A total of 47 tonnes of garbage from the site has been hauled away and, with no other real options on Phuket, buried with the landfill at the island's Saphan Hin dump.
Thank you for the mention,of the run off pollution. That run off contains a toxic brew of pesticides, herbicides, petrochemicals and "cleaning" products, that were released when their containers were damaged during the conflagration. The SOP for the run off is that it is pumped into a special tanker and then taken to an appropriate waste management facility. Thailand does have the capability to do it and has done it before when there have been industrial accidents at its petro chemical plants. It remains to be seen whether Super Cheap will take responsibility for this aspect of the clean up and whether or not the local authorities will respond appropriately. If it is not addressed now, it will not go away and could conceivably turn the area into a contaminated site and health hazard.
Posted by Ryan on October 22, 2013 19:39