Pithakkiart Witthaya School in 
Thailand was left devastated when a fire broke out in a dormitory killing 17 schoolgirls and leaving 5 with grave injuries. The fire started in a two storey building of a boarding house situated in Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand, at 11 PM on Saturday night.
Prayad Singsin, Police Colonel and Commander of Vingpatao district in Chiang Rai has stated that “The fire broke out at 11pm on Sunday (local time, 1600GMT). Seventeen girls were killed and two are still missing, with five injured.”
The blaze swept rapidly through the dormitory of the boarding house cum school for girls belonging to deprived local hill tribes in the North of Thailand, stated officials. These girls had to travel long distances to their home and thus stayed at the boarding school. The Thailand dormitory fire has devastated the building causing deaths and injuries and a few of the schoolgirls are reported missing in the incident that happened late at night, in the Christian school that was run on charity.
The girls had been fast asleep when the fire started and the girls could not escape as the whole two storeyed building was engulfed in the scorching flames.
Prayad Singsin has also confirmed that two of the injured girls are very serious and the charred debris showed no signs of any other death as stated by the rescuers. The Police official who was in wait for the forensic team has stated that “The fire is out, but the cause of the blaze is still under investigation.” Girls aged 6-13 were staying in this privately –run school and the death toll is about 17 stated a Chiang Rai provincial official.
Arkom Sukapan, the deputy governor of the province, confirmed to a daily that “There were 38 students inside the dormitory when the fire broke out. Some were not yet asleep so they escaped. But others were asleep and could not escape, resulting in the large number of casualties.”
The school’s Facebook page has exhibited pictures showing firefighters caught in the act of dousing the flames as they leapt through the wooden structure. The media showed the upper storey of the building blazing as a fire truck sprayed water to put out the flames.
The poverty struck village tribes are a big attraction for the drug gangs and reports of altercations between the “Golden triangle” and the Police are commonly heard.
