Plant closed after deaths
POLICE SUSPECT VICTIMS INHALED TOXIC GAS, WHILE FACTORY AWAITS SAFETY CHECK
>> The deaths of five people who fell into a wastewater treatment pond at a CPF factory on Friday has led authorities to temporarily shut down the Bang-Na Trat Road facility.
The closure comes as a team of Industry Ministry investigators, engineers and a fact-finding unit assembled by Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc seek to identify the cause of the deaths.
Officials have ordered the factory to “shut down its wastewater treatment facility for improvement,” deputy permanent secretary for industry Nisakorn Jungjaroentham said yesterday.
More details of the case will be revealed tomorrow by the ministry’s Industrial Works Department, in charge of overseeing factories, and the Environmental Engineering Association of Thailand following their initial probe into Friday’s tragedy, she said.
They will clarify information about the deaths, l egal issues and f actory safety standards.
Police suspect the five victims inhaled a toxic gas, although it rests unclear if the CPF facility was following strict safety standards.
On Friday morning, a tour comprising two students visited the poultry feed-producing plant. One of the students, identified as Panthika Tasuwan, 23, fell into the four-metre deep wastewater treatment pond, prompting company staff to rush to her aid, say police.
Ratchanok Saenthaweekun, 24, the plant’s environmental officer who was leading the tour, was the first person to jump in to rescue Panthika, but they were both knocked unconscious.
Another three staffers then rushed to the treatment area to try to pull the two women out, but they too fell into the pond. The three staffers, who later died, are identified as Pornchai Boonban, 40, Charnchai Phanthunakhin, 42, and Chatree Seethankorn, age unknown.
Parisothat Punnabhum, CPF’s senior executive vice-president f or human resources, says he was stunned to learn of the accident as the tour had been guided by the plant’s officer.
The wastewater treatment facility is also a “closed area,” Mr Parisothat said.
CPF has set up its own team of investigators to determine why the deaths happened and if the plant met safety standards.
Mr Parisothat said CPF plans to offer financial help to the families of victims.
Chulalongkorn University rector Bandit Uea-aphon also promised to offer help to the family of Panthika, a fifth-year student from the Faculty of Veterinary Science.
As for the four company employees, they are entitled to assistance under the Workmen Compensation Fund and the Social Security Fund, Labour Minister Sirichai Distakul said.
In another related story, a wastewater treatment facility at Ramathibodi Hospital caught fire yesterday, but was extinguished quickly with no injury. Officials suspect a short-circuit in an unused electric fan caused the incident.
Neighbouring residents were first alerted when they saw white smoke billowing from the rooftop of the four-storey wastewater treatment building at the public hospital on Rama VI Road in Ratchathewi district at about 10.30am.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze on the ground floor of the building in about 10 minutes.
Assoc Prof Surasak Leela-Udomlipi, director of the hospital, later said that an old electric fan had caught fire, possibly due to a short-circuit.
A few staff members were evacuated from the building, but it had no impact on public services and patients at the hospital, he said.