Kader Toy Factory Fire
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On May 10, 1993, there was a major fire at the Kader Toy Factory in Thailand. 188 people were killed, and over 500 were seriously injured. Most of the victims were young female workers from rural families. More people were killed in this industrial accident than in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire; despite this, the incident received little media attention outside Thailand.
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[edit] The Fire
The Kader Toy Factory, on the outskirts of Bangkok, produced soft toys and licensed plastic toys, mostly for export to the United States and other developed countries. The toys were produced for Disney, Mattel and others.
The factory was poorly designed and built. Fire exits on the plans were not put in place, and external doors were locked. Furthermore, the building was reinforced with un-insulated steel girders which quickly weakened and collapsed.
At about 4pm on May 10th, 1993, a small fire was discovered on the first floor of part of the E-shaped building. Workers were instructed to keep working as the fire was thought to be minor. The fire alarm in this building did not sound.
This part of the building was dedicated to the storage of finished products and the fire spread quickly. Other parts of the factory were full of raw materials which also burnt very fast.
Workers in the first building who tried to escape found the ground floor exit doors locked, and the stairwells soon collapsed. Many workers jumped from the second, third and fourth floor windows in order to escape the flames, resulting in severe injuries or death.
Fire-fighters arrived at the factory at about 4:40pm, to find Building One about to collapse.
Fire alarms in buildings two and three had sounded and all the workers were able to escape.
[edit] Aftermath of the Fire
Most victims were taken by ambulance to the Sriwichai II Hospital, where 20 of them died. When the northern stairwell of the collapsed building was searched, the bodies of many others were found. These victims died of smoke inhalation, the flames, or the ultimate collapse of the building.
[edit] Media References
New Zealand singer-songwriter Don McGlashan released a song about the disaster Toy Factory Fire on his 2006 album Warm Hand. The song showed the imagined perspective of a toy company public relations executive in the week of the 10th anniversary of the fire, saying "Keeping [photos of the disaster] hidden was the best work I ever did" and described the factory as "a death trap from a textbook."
