Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

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Bruce
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Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Bruce »

Last night I was summoned from my bed around midnight with neighbours in our village [Chaikhao Mountain Home ,Moo BanBOFAI NR SOI 6] ringing my bell & others & shouting "Fire! Fire !" I rushed out to see a house on fire smoke billowing out of a neighbour's home ..an ambualance was in attendance thankfully as someone had phoned 191 ...I joined the bucket queue passing water from the fish pond in the garden to help try & dowse the flames out .we also found & used the hosepipe for watering the garden but it was touch & go & a few brave Fareng risked their lives quelling the flames whilst glass was shattering all around ...after a further 20 mins FINALLY the fire engine arrived..it had taken them approx 30-40 mins to arrive since the emergency call was made !
I was so angry at the ineptitude of these guys that I told them all including the Police officers present but doing nothing except talk on their mobs & stare what I & the other residents of our village thought of them ..they just looked awayshamefacedly ......
If the wind had been blowing it could have swept through the whole village ...I would like to know is this appalingly late response time the norm or just a bad one -off-anyone else had this problem?
Something needs to be done about this ie guaranteed response times should be made transparent [like in the UK] & they should be tested regularly.
I just tried to ring 191 & complain & their English was so bad they didn't understand "Fire" even when I spelled it out ...unbelieveable !
How many people both Thai & Farang must die until this essentail emergency service is held to account?
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by HHTel »

Some time ago, my son went into the police station to report accidents happening on the crossroads outside the police station due to some flooding. He was told "Everyone asleep. Come back in the morning!"

The above account doesn't surprise me at all.
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B6PTW
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by B6PTW »

Hi
I work for a UK Fire service and our turnout time is 10minutes if the Appliance is in its own station longer if] no appliance is in the area, this is in a city with many stations. My friend is in Scotland and has been known to do a 40 min blue light run.
I also live in Bofai and would not expect an attendance time in daytime short of 25 mins judging by the way traffic never moves for ambulances or fire appliances, I would expect it to be much shorter at night.
Did the fire appliances come from Hua Hin or Cha am. I believe Cha am would be quicker as it is a quicker route with less traffic but not likely.
Lastly I hope everyone is ok and the family are not out of their home for too long.
Regards.
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Name Taken »

HHTel wrote:The above account doesn't surprise me at all.
:lach:

TIT
Surprised they even showed up at all tbh.
It's so sad here in Thailand that it's actually funny in a weird way sometimes.
:duck:
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Big Boy
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Big Boy »

The usual synical responses aside, are the fire brigade in Hua Hin really that bad? I've seen them trying to rush to incidents, and because of the bulk of their water ladened trucks, other drivers tend to move out of the way.

I've seen them in attendance at incidents also, and they seem to be doing as good a job as they can.

AFAIK we have at least 3 stations here in Hua Hin. One in Soi 102, one in Soi 74 and one beside the Palace. I would have expected reasonable response time everywhere except to the West.

Do we have anybody on here with actual experiences affecting themselves? Was Bruce's experience a one off? I'd be interested to hear.
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Lung Per »

Not so many years ago the Hua Hin Firebrigade garage consisted of 2 (two) motocys with sidecars, manned with 2 people each with their hand pump. Now they have vehicles, but apparently too slow to get them on the road.
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by hhinner »

AFAIK the correct number for the fire service is 199. 191 is police emergency, so calling that number may well cause delays as they forward messages to fire and/or ambulance.
Police 191
Fire 199
Ambulance 1669

There are recent news reports of it taking 20 minutes or more to even get through on 191 in Bangkok. Maybe it's better here.
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by centermid7 »

Your village would be better served if everyone's home had sufficient garden hose to insure coverage of their own home and most of their next door neighbors. Really.

I am curious as to how you think the fire crew preformed after they arrived? Turn-out gear? Pumper truck? Knowledge of hydrants whereabouts (if any)? Did they even look the least bit organized? As best I can tell they are pretty crap at what they do. And at midnight it's gotta be even worse. 20 minute plus response time kinda bears that out I think.

I've seen them fighting grass fires in flip flops and going up into BIG apartment buildings in BKK in the elevator with not a breathing pack in sight. They eventually had to empty the rooftop swimming pool to contain the fire.

Oh Thailand! What to do? The services that people most need and need to preform well when the SHTF - police, fire, ambulance - all pretty much universally suck.

Cheers!
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Terry »

Back in the 1998, I was working in KL and some old buddies & I decided to have a reunion booze session in Bangkok.
Someone decided that we should all stay in the XXXX XXXX Hotel in Soi 4 (Name removed to avoid any legal problem). So – all 7 of us, plus wives and girlfriends all checked in on the Thursday night.
A few days prior to this, there had been a major hotel fire in Pattaya with several fatalities due to the emergency escape doors being locked – according to the owner – “to stop people checking out without paying”.
So – I check all the fire escapes etc. and told Mrs. T that IF a fire broke out, then we had to get a wet towel over our heads and proceed down the stairs etc etc.
We were on the 5th floor and there were 6 floors in the hotel.
A good time ensued – until about 03.30hrs on Sunday morning, when there was a loud knocking on the door. Now – at 03.30 in the morning my brain is not quite in gear and after several seconds my nose twitched with the smell of burning and I could hear noises in the street below. Many folk standing down there pointing up at the vicinity of our room.
Suddenly the brain engaged 100% - we were on fire! Subsequently it was seen that the fire had started in the room on one floor up and to one side of ours.
I still have nightmares about this today – I recall going down stairs with Mrs. T and almost choking to death on the acrid grey smoke.
We made it to the street outside and joined the throng looking up – by this time; flames could be seen in the offending room.
After about 15 mins from the ‘rude awakening’ a pick-up truck arrives with 5 firemen onboard. One gets on to his radio, 2 of them proceed to demolish a cast iron drain cover to try and get to a fire hydrant and two of them get their air breathing equipment and enter the hotel.
Now a large of crowd of onlookers have gathered plus two pick-ups of the ‘body snatchers’ and one police car and total chaos has ensued.
The hose is finally charged via an antiquated diesel pump on the back of the pickup and then a fireman is seen in the room, who proceeds to smash the room window.
Glass showers down onto the road below and lacerates the fire hose which is now swirling around like a wild snake. The crowd is now a mixture of gasps of horror and wild laughter.
Meanwhile the room burns
Then a monstrous fire truck arrives with all bells and sirens blasting (This is about 30 minutes after we evacuated)
This truck now has to wait a further 5 minutes whilst the police and body snatchers make space for it.
Finally the fire is under control, but by this time over half of the top floor rooms are gutted.
One of our party takes the wives and girlfriends down the road and checks them all in to another hotel – we still had several days of partying to attend to…………….
By about 06.00 we were readmitted to the hotel to go to our rooms and retrieve our belongings. When we went in, all rooms had had their wall safes and mini bars emptied and I noticed that the ‘fire’ button in the lobby was held in place by STRING.
Luckily most of our party had survived unharmed and with loss of personal effects.
The lady on the reception Manager / owner was now demanding payment of bills. You can guess what the reply was from all of us…………….
Anyway – not to worry, the hotel was open and back in business two days later with the top floor sealed off.
Cause of fire? Apparently some old lady had lit a candle in her room which fell over etc etc.
My verdict on the emergency services – 5/10 for service and 10/10 for entertainment value.
:cheers:
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by ste860 »

terry i remember the fire in jontiem you are on about every fire exit was chained and pad locked ,so guest could not do a runner ,i had a condo right opposite , the hotel owners got a right bollocking but nothing more , but the fire service back then did ok ,im sure tenders came from everywhere there was not enough in pattaya
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Stargeezer »

I seen a BKK fire several years back. The fire squad had lots of equipment and battled the
fire in a spirited way, and got the fire out, but about 5 rooms had burned by then.
The fire started by workers installing new carpet, and accidently setting it on fire.
The biggest problem I seen was the fire trucks trying to get into position to fight the fire,
they had to have the police make people get out of their way. I was amazed at the ignorance of
some of the drivers who needed to be hauled from their vehicles by the police ins some
cases, then the officer would move the car along the street. I think that if this is the case in the city, it is likely the case in Hua Hin as well, making the response time longer than it is where I
live in Canada. I am sure that the fire fighters in Thailand have far less training than
the fellows who are paid to come and put out fires in my neighbourhood.
Just my opinion of things of course.
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Bruce
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Bruce »

B6PTW wrote:Hi
I work for a UK Fire service and our turnout time is 10minutes if the Appliance is in its own station longer if] no appliance is in the area, this is in a city with many stations. My friend is in Scotland and has been known to do a 40 min blue light run.
I also live in Bofai and would not expect an attendance time in daytime short of 25 mins judging by the way traffic never moves for ambulances or fire appliances, I would expect it to be much shorter at night.
Did the fire appliances come from Hua Hin or Cha am. I believe Cha am would be quicker as it is a quicker route with less traffic but not likely.
Lastly I hope everyone is ok and the family are not out of their home for too long.
Regards.
Thank you for your comment....all in all the fire brigade took approx 45 mins to arrive & yes thankfully the Norwegian guy was ok after being taken to hospital in the ambulance.
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Re: Fire brigade response time ...or lack of it

Post by Bruce »

centermid7 wrote:Your village would be better served if everyone's home had sufficient garden hose to insure coverage of their own home and most of their next door neighbors. Really.

I am curious as to how you think the fire crew preformed after they arrived? Turn-out gear? Pumper truck? Knowledge of hydrants whereabouts (if any)? Did they even look the least bit organized? As best I can tell they are pretty crap at what they do. And at midnight it's gotta be even worse. 20 minute plus response time kinda bears that out I think.

I've seen them fighting grass fires in flip flops and going up into BIG apartment buildings in BKK in the elevator with not a breathing pack in sight. They eventually had to empty the rooftop swimming pool to contain the fire.

Oh Thailand! What to do? The services that people most need and need to preform well when the SHTF - police, fire, ambulance - all pretty much universally suck.

Cheers!
You are right the turnout was dreadful...only 1 guy in ful uniform & helmete etc ready to go ..rest,yawning,in T-shirts etc ..complete lack of urgency,accountabiity...sad to see actually....& I repeat my previous comment tatal response time was approx 45 mins !
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