Click a thumbnail to view more photographs
Tourist Speedboat Goes Up in Smoke: 10m Baht Blaze North of Phuket
By Chutima Sidasathian Wednesday, April 3, 2013
PHUKET: A 10 million baht tourist speedboat blazed north of Phuket today as firemen could do little except look on.
The impressive speedboat, which ferries guests from the five-star La Flora Resort and Spa in Phang Nga to the Similan islands, was destroyed at its floating pontoon mooring.
The blaze about 8.40am sent a pall of black smoke high into the air. It came as Chanwet Tongchai loaded 600 litres of fuel.
He noticed a spark and was slightly injured as the speedboat caught on fire.
For local firefighters, battling the blaze proved a difficult task. A water truck got close to the pontoon, then a hose was carried down to the end.
The battle was lost, and so was the speedboat.
|
Comments
Comments have been disabled for this article.
People blame cars for pollution all the times. Working on local islands, I am sure the pollution from the boats is a lot worse.
Even from my experience on Thai boats, they still smoke while filling up from bottles of Gas/Petrol.
I even had to tell the staff on one boat that you cannot smoke when refueling, but didn't believe me.
Posted by
Tbs
on
April 3, 2013 18:42
I assume the figure of Bt 10m came from the owner preparing his insurance claim but a twin-engine local speedboat costs nowhere near that much.
Even if it was brand new with twin 4-stroke engines (looks like 2-stroke V6 Yamahas to me) it's still Bt 3m at best.
You can buy such a boat 2nd hand for less than Bt 1m.
Even the largest I've seen, the ones with 5 x 225 Honda 4-stroke engines they call Sea Canoes don't cost Bt 10m new.
Not that it really matters, just thought I'd point that out.
Posted by
Stephen
on
April 3, 2013 19:22
He noticed a spark. LOL
I have spent a lot of time on speedboats and never once seen random sparks jumping about. People loading fuel whilst smoking I have seen many times, from a distance.
Posted by
soupdragon
on
April 4, 2013 05:24
Luckily the fire did not start by the sea with the speedboat full of tourists.
Speedboat with gasoline engines should be banned as public transport boats as it is done in America and Europe.
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
April 4, 2013 11:12
10 Million Baht? Whoever sold the boat to the La Flora Resort, saw them coming as a money spinner. That boat is not worth more than 1.5 million Baht. Random sparkes, sure it was not lightening or a ghost?
Posted by
Robin
on
April 4, 2013 11:23
@Robin
A 220HP 2-stroke engines cost at least 900,000 Baht and that speedboat has 2 engines according to the pictures.
Fiberglass hull costs at least 2-4 million bahts and wooden hull from 1.5 up to 2.5 Million baht; then add navigation and radio equipments (GPS, VHF, CB, ect...).
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
April 4, 2013 13:12
10 million baht for a small plastic bathtub with twin outboards? Oh,Come-on, pull the other one.
Posted by
agogohome
on
April 4, 2013 16:54
Talking about smoking near boats, when i was in Koh Sumui a few years ago, i was waiting at the dock to go on a cruise, and the crew were standing there up against the barrels of fuel smoking ! I noticed this and slowly stood up and moved away. This happen about 6 years ago, and i still laugh about it
Posted by
Phill
on
April 4, 2013 17:44
Slightly continuing a tangent, I've seen petrol attendents smoking while refuling, in Thailand and Spain ! Mind you in Spain I saw female traffic cops smoking whilst directing traffic ! Hillarious. Or not.)
Posted by
James
on
April 4, 2013 19:06
@ Whistle-Blower
Can you please tell us who makes a 220 HP 2-stroke outboard engine ?
I used to have one but I bet you don't know which it is because they were never for sale in Thailand.
The point here is the value of Bt 10m is wildly exaggerated and we can only guess why.
If in doubt, just look at similar 2nd hand speedboats for sale on Phuket and you can see that there are plenty to choose from for about Bt 1m and even less.
Posted by
Stephen
on
April 4, 2013 19:23
@Stephen
200HP or 225Hp is clear for you? Don'not bother me for details or go straight to Yamaha website @ http://www.yamahaoutboards.com/outboards/2-Stroke-HPDI/overview
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
April 4, 2013 20:59
Wow. They have now a floating ponton and a burned boat at La Flora Khaolak.
Long time my favorite hotel in Khaolak. Can even remember the evening The Boss (owner) from Bangkok was there and he performed first class karaoke with "I did it my way". Staff was very on edge this evening... and the singaporean manager was pretty cool, as he upgraded us to the beach house suite as they had overbooked the ordered normal oceanfront villas. Spa was also excellent. Only their beach restaurant was re-modelled with a lot of cheap orange foam to what ever. That with all the candles at night... good they changed it back to the more traditional Thai style and less fire prone a year later. And yes, I remember the electric transformator near the main entrance always creating sparks and crackles, in rain even more. Always a little bit afraid to park there. And last but not least, it is the very resort, that was hit hard in the tsunami and a lot of military came to search for one particular victim running the wrong way into this awful wave and helping a lot of other people in the process.
Ehhh, yes, sorry for wasting your time with some random memories, sparked by your report.
Posted by
Lena
on
April 4, 2013 23:56
|
wow, that is some thick black smoke if ever i saw some
Posted by Sean on April 3, 2013 17:25