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Store owner claims firemen wanted bribes

THE country's ability to cope with the rigours of modern life was again brought into question by the death of four people when Bangkok's most popular department store collapsed on Saturday.

The Central Department Store's Chidlom branch partially caved in - killing a policeman, a rescuer and two employees and injuring 20 others - following a fire which broke out on Wednesday night.

The store's owners claimed firemen demanded bribes to put out the fire.

The Chidlom store gave way shortly after soldiers started installing emergency lighting and as store employees checked goods inside.

Some witnesses said vibrations from two army trucks driven up to the third floor level might have triggered the collapse.

Police General Salang Bunnk, said one of the store's 'owners' had complained that firemen were using delaying tactics to squeeze bribes from the company.

'The owner pointed a firefighter out. I said he was pointing at the fire brigade chief - a man I said I trusted,' General Salang said on Friday.

The Central group's chief executive, Suthikiati Chirathiwat, has bitterly criticised the fire brigade because the first two fire engines to be brought to the scene could not be used: one had no water, the other no key for its water pump.

The authorities in turn criticised Central for having a windowless building with false ceilings that hid the movement of the fire along flammable air ducts.

Mr Krisda, the Bangkok architect-turned-governor, defended the building he designed two decades ago as being 'built with higher safety standards than required by the law'.

However the head of civil engineering at Chulalongkorn University, Dr Akhasit Limsuwan, said: 'Five-star hotels and some high-rise buildings are probably safe, but safety in condominiums and department stores is a low priority.' The Nation complained at the weekend that it was 'an open secret' the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration was happily accepting daily fines from department stores for breaching safety standards rather than ordering their demolition.

'The trouble with us Bangkokians is that while we emulate Western consumption patterns . . . we pay scant attention to the same safety standards,' said the newspaper editorial.

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