By Meleasie Goviro – EM TV News, Port Moresby
At least eight people died from an accidental chemical leak at Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank earlier this week.
The accident occurred as contractors were working on the building’s firefighting system.
The bank’s executive committee chairman on Monday dismissed initial media reports of an explosion, saying the deaths were possibly caused by suffocation from pyrogen, a fire retardant chemical.
“The fire protection system works by releasing a type of gas (pyrogen) that causes an insufficiency of oxygen, this prevents the fire from worsening. But in this incident, there were people inside and due to the lack of oxygen, people suffocated, resulting in deaths and injuries. Therefore the incident was not caused by a fire or any explosion,” he said.
A statement released by the bank revealed that those killed were contractors and a security guard, while seven other injured people were admitted to hospital.
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