Anyone have any info on a large fire in Udon last night? Reported on channel 3 news this morning.

I've seen the photos and videos on Facebook and it appears that a fire was burning in the upstairs units over the Top World store on Phosri Road east of the 2nd circle. Doesn't look like the store had fire damage, but no doubt they were flooded out by all the water trickling down from the upper floors. Stay tuned to the Udon News website for more info. They were on the scene shooting pics and video.

https://www.facebook.com/udon.today.news

From the video, it looks like the fire may have started on the second floor.....and whatever was burning was setting off bursts of fire that led to the fire rapidly spreading.
https://th-th.facebook.com/UdonNews.III

Sure were a few things going Pop in there ....

bumper wrote:http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/ ... upermarket

From the BP: "Fire engines from Udon Thani and other nearby municipalities, and from the 24th Army District and the 23rd Wing of the air force, were called out to fight the blaze."

This shows just how unprepared Udon's fire service is for tackling a major blaze. I hope this is a wake up call for them to be better prepared and equipped to effectively take on a big fire at, for example, one of the older large hotels in town. Heaven forbid that should happen.

rreddin wrote:

bumper wrote:http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/ ... upermarket

From the BP: "Fire engines from Udon Thani and other nearby municipalities, and from the 24th Army District and the 23rd Wing of the air force, were called out to fight the blaze."

This shows just how unprepared Udon's fire service is for tackling a major blaze. I hope this is a wake up call for them to be better prepared and equipped to effectively take on a big fire at, for example, one of the older large hotels in town. Heaven forbid that should happen.

What's even more frightening is to understand that the infrastructure is just not there to fight a large fire. If you look at all the photos and video that is available in the various media, you will only see one truck with one hose trained on the fire. The number of hydrants is probably inadequate and so is the water pressure. And how many of the trucks actually had water on board, or did they all require hook-up to a hydrant? Good thing it happened after working hours and the fire spread to floors that had only storage and no occupants. If lives were at stake I'm sure we would have seen a more tragic outcome.

rreddin wrote:

bumper wrote:http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/ ... upermarket

From the BP: "Fire engines from Udon Thani and other nearby municipalities, and from the 24th Army District and the 23rd Wing of the air force, were called out to fight the blaze."

This shows just how unprepared Udon's fire service is for tackling a major blaze.

Does it?

Perhaps they are well aware of the other resources close at hand, which can be called upon if required.

I wonder if there was a major fire at the Army base, or the airport, whether the Udon civilian resources will be called upon to assist. It would make sense if they were.

Had a fire in the fields next to our house last year (probably some idiot trying to burn off the weeds 1 or 2km away and went to sleep) fire brigade eventually turned up (about 2 hrs) by which time the fields and trees were well ablaze, and I was damping everything down near my outside wall. The truck went first to one side of the field and fired it's 25000 litres (or whatever they hold) onto the fields from their power hose on top of the engine. When it was empty they had to go away and refill (fire still ablaze whilst they did), and then return to the other side of the field (Where peoples wooden houses were located) and re empty their engine. By this time most of the fire was out except for a small area which was out of reach of their hose from either side ......... their answer was to send three or four guys out there with twiggs to put it out needless to say they had to return on two further days after it had re ignited and I and my neighbours were still putting out sporadic fires a week later Then it rained

Our son-in-law is a fireman and paramedic at a fire station in the US. I've seen the equipment they use.....and he's told me what he can/can't do as a paramedic.

Living here, I recognize that there's no equivalent. The fire department has some modernish equipment, but I don't think I'd want to be living on the 12th floor of one of the new condos going up in town. Likewise with paramedic type service. For starters, traffic rarely (very rarely) gives way to an ambulance's siren. The equipment in the ambulances here pales in comparison to what I've seen in the US. And, as I understand it, the responders here are very limited in what sort of in-transit treatment they can give. Last I knew, none of the ambulances carried things like a defibrillator.
I chalk it up to one of the cons of living here. I also recognize that I'm not paying a few grand in taxes each year for city services.....like I would be back in the US. It is what it is....and really shouldn't come as a shock to anyone living here.

I agree, we ask a lot for the limited tax we pay here. For most of us it is just VAT.

I hope they have an assistance agreement.

I only recall seeing one fire Hydrant in First homes and I may even be wrong with that, The homes are all brick, with exception of doors,. What would burn would be the stuff in the house, The safest bet is to have good fire insurance, to cover replacement cost. Then record that in some d fashion other then in the house. I carry flood insurance a well, the cost is 10K a year. The rates had a one year nik with the flood in Bangkok, which more then likely will happen again.

Ambulance, if you can transport yourself you will cut the time by 50% to the hospital. We have been offered free CPR classes in the past. Do you know which neighbors went I do.

You can do a lot with CPR if it is started quickly. I've done it as a emergency responder ( COP) every time I got there it was to late, The only time I had a success was when I happen to be at the place it happened at.

One thing I will say on the positive is these ambulance drivers are careful, they probably won't get you killed a car accident on the way.

One thing I need to work on is getting some fire extinguishers.

More then likely just like the guy who wet down the outside of his home you will probably the first responder.

I see the fire trucks out being used to water so at least we know they work. There is one Hydrant at the road to the farm. I have to take a look around and find out how close there is one to our house.

If you have a pond and gas pump and enough hose. You will probably do better on your own. Worse case the drains normally have enough water in them to operate a pump. I have one at the farm not in use anymore I probably should bring it here. Put that all together and you still pay less then property taxes in California. We use that drain method in first homes for years to water the parks, so it works.

That fire seemed to happen around 0200 hours, who knows how long it took for it to get reported. Things like become controlled burns in the states all the time. Sometimes the best any fire department can do is keep it from spreading to other buildings at best anywhere you live.

So in the end we can complain about it, or step up and do the things we need to do for ourselves.

jackspratt wrote:

rreddin wrote:

bumper wrote:http://www.bangkokpost.com/most-recent/ ... upermarket

From the BP: "Fire engines from Udon Thani and other nearby municipalities, and from the 24th Army District and the 23rd Wing of the air force, were called out to fight the blaze."

This shows just how unprepared Udon's fire service is for tackling a major blaze.

Does it?

Perhaps they are well aware of the other resources close at hand, which can be called upon if required.

In all politeness and respect, that is a stretch indeed. There is a lack of firefighting infrastructure, equipment, training and expertise in Udon Thani. There are not extra resources just laying idle, a radio call away.

It doesn't make one anti-Thai to say this either. There has been quite a lot of discussion in Thai language (on Facebook) on the matter by hundreds of locals, officials, and even Thais located abroad in western countries.

And one simply has to read it to understand the issue is very real across much of Thailand, and there are very few solutions on the table.

Understandably if one cannot read, write or speak the language, it does leave a lot of guesswork.

Redwolf wrote:- "Understandably if one cannot read, write or speak the language, it does leave a lot of guesswork".

And even when you DO read, DO write and DO speak the language, it STILL leaves a lot to guesswork