‘Pitiful’ award to survivor of Thai club fire

A COMPENSATION award for the victims of a nightclub fire in Thailand has been described as “pitiful” by the lawyer of a Sheffield man caught up in the blaze.

Sixty-seven people died and more than 100 were injured in the fire which engulfed Bangkok’s upmarket Santika Club on New Year’s Day 2009.

The Bangkok Criminal Court found nightclub owner Wisuk Sejsawat and company executive Boonchu Laosinart guilty of causing the deaths of other persons without intent and jailed them both for three years.

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It also ordered Boonchu’s company to pay 8.7 million baht (£162,000) in compensation to the victims or their families.

But British survivor Oliver Smart, from Millhouses, Sheffield, said his claim for his injuries alone had been valued at around the same amount.

His lawyer, Clive Garner, said there were “grave concerns” about the “very low level” of the payout.

“We have no information at this early stage as to how this will be shared between the victims. This is a pitiful sum and is clearly insufficient to compensate those who have suffered serious injuries and the dozens of families who lost loved ones in this terrible incident.

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“Even the costs of medical treatment and rehabilitation alone will significantly exceed this sum. We are very concerned about the injustice of the award and how this could affect the recovery of victims.”

More than 1,000 revellers were inside the nightclub when an indoor fireworks display set off after the countdown to New Year ignited the blaze.

Mr Smart was one of four Britons taken to hospital after the stampede to flee it.

The 35-year-old had gone to Thailand to visit his girlfriend, who lived there, and was celebrating New Year’s Eve with her when the fire broke out.

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He spent six weeks in hospital, being treated for serious burns to his body, face, hands and back in intensive care, and was forced to take five months off work.

Mr Smart, an area manager for an insurance firm, said it had been a “devastating experience” for his whole family and labelled the amount of compensation ordered “disappointing”.

“I have spent months in hospital and I am likely to be on medication for the rest of my life.

“I’m relieved that at last someone is going to be held accountable for what happened. I was worried that no action would be taken but hopefully now people realise the importance of health and safety measures and regulations, and measures will be put in place to prevent anything like this from happening again.

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“However, it is disappointing to see how much those responsible have been asked to pay the victims. My own claim for my injuries has been valued at around the same amount that the court has ordered to be paid in total to all of the victims and the families of those that died.”

His lawyer said all available avenues would be pursued to obtain full and fair compensation.

“This is a truly tragic case,” he added. “While it will be of some relief to the victims to see those responsible brought to justice, the fight to enable victims to receive full and fair compensation including the treatment and rehabilitation they deserve now continues.”

Last year, Mr Smart recounted the terror of the night’s events, revealing he and his partner had only chosen to go to the nightclub on the spur of the moment.

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Recalling the night, he said: “Just after we arrived everyone was given sparklers and suddenly fireworks were being set off. A few minutes later, people around us were starting to look up and there was a small fire in the corner of the roofspace.

“It didn’t look like much and when people saw it they weren’t exactly panicking. But the spread was instantaneous. The flames went straight across the whole of the roof and at that point everybody just went nuts.

“It was chaos, every man for himself. People were literally fighting each other to get out.

“At some point the electricity was cut so it went black and it was also getting very smoky and hot. All you could hear was screaming and I remember hearing bottles behind the bar exploding in the heat.

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“You had a mass swell of people – there were 800 to 1,000 people in the club – all those people were trying to get out of one door. All I was thinking at that point was ‘This is it – this is the end of the road’.”

Mr Smart said he only had a vague memory of being pulled from the burning building by a firefighter, but then went completely blank until he emerged from a coma 23 days later with 30 per cent burns.

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