HIGH FIVE

[pattayaman 8]

give this  hotel  a miss

We got  burnt  out   and the  cheeky  bastards still  had the  cheek  to charge  us  1800 baht  for  room.

my  bags  still  stink  of  fire

 

pattayaman

[BigDUSA 71]

I think we will all be giving this hotel a miss for this high season.

 

I like the thai mindset. We have fire; fornicate you, pay room. Did they offer any assistance in finding another room?

[cmagrad 6]

When I was in their last major fire 11 months ago the did not give rebates or discounts then either.

[wombat 5]

When I was in their last major fire 11 months ago the did not give rebates or discounts then either.

;D.....i'm not going on holidays with you.... ;D

[H 0]

Thought they had a deal going...............

 

Burn one get one free?

 

 

H

[Taxi 0]

you want smoking or non smoking floor

[Taxi 0]

Actually for those who haven't seen it, here's the follow up story from the Pattaya mail.   http://www.pattayamail.com/

 

Victims of High Five fire provide chilling account

 

“It’s a Christmas miracle he survived,” one witness said

 

Elfi Seitz

 

Norwegian Hans Mueller is afraid that he will lose the use of his leg.

 

On Christmas Eve last week, an electric transformer exploded next to the High Five Hotel on Soi & in Central Pattaya. As reported in Pattaya Mail last week, there were no fatalities, but there were a number of injuries ranging from rather minor to quite severe. In the aftermath of the terrifying event, Pattaya Mail managed to talk with some of the victims. Here is what we found out:

 

All who were interviewed agreed that the firefighters did a great job and were true heroes of this sad event, as was the staff of the neighboring Sunbeam Hotel, who did their utmost to console and help the injured. But almost all lamented the lack of fire security at the High Five Hotel.

 

Laurent Betourne praises the prudence and care of the Sunbeam Hotel staff.

 

German citizen Manfred (last name withheld) and his Thai girlfriend said they were in their room on the third floor of the hotel when they heard strange noises from the street.

 

They wanted to leave their room, but dark smoke hindered them. They returned to the room and used bed sheets to try to climb down from the balcony. But when Manfred stepped on the balcony balustrade, it broke and he fell onto the grounds of the Sunbeam Hotel. He was lucky and broke only one toe and has a few bruises on his arms and legs.

 

William Koerber rests in his hospital bed. This young man has a long road of rehabilitation ahead of him.

 

“I think the security in this hotel is a scandal compared to European standards. There was no fire alarm and not enough ladders to help the people down. Worse yet, the fire escape leads back into the hotel and not to the outside,” Manfred said.

 

Gnter Franke, another German from Stuttgart, was asleep in his room on the fourth floor when he heard the elevator alarm before the lights went out. Opening his door, he saw the heavy smoke. Since his room had no balcony and the fire-escape was not in reach, he quickly soaked all his clothes and took the only way out for him: through the fire and smoke all the way down the stairs. “It was either me or the fire. I am lucky I made it,” he said. He was full of praise for the manager of the hotel, who immediately came to help him. Suffering from smoke inhalation, he managed to get to a hospital by himself.

 

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the end of this fire escape led back into the hotel to an area quite close to the fire.

 

Norwegian sailor Hans Mueller said it was his first time in Pattaya. At the outbreak of the fire he was on the sixth floor with his girlfriend. A room maid knocked on his door and when he opened it, he saw that the floor was full of smoke. His girlfriend found the way to the fire escape, but many people were there already and they were pushing to get out. Hans fell to the ground next to the Sunbeam Hotel, injuring his leg. His unharmed girlfriend brought him to the hospital.

 

American William Koerber is at the Bangkok Pattaya Hospital and will have to stay there for many weeks. The young man was staying in his room on the 10th floor when at 12:55 (afternoon) he tried to go outside to visit his brother John in Jomtien. He hadn’t heard a fire alarm and was shocked to see the heavy smoke. He couldn’t reach the nearest fire escape, so crawled on his hands and knees to the other one.

 

“I made it down to the 6th floor I guess, but then the smoke was so heavy that I couldn’t manage anymore. So I tried to reach the window to climb down the window bars, but unfortunately they didn’t hold my weight and I fell down all the way,” he remembers.

 

William also landed on the grounds of the Sunbeam Hotel and all who watched his fall in horror thought he must be dead. But he survived. Staff at the Sunbeam Hotel cared for him until, according to some witnesses, the ambulance arrived about an hour later. He suffered several breaks on both feet and legs, hips, pelvis and left arm. After two emergency operations, he will have another operation next week and from then, “all is in God’s hands” according to his brother. John added, “We are happy he survived and has no real major injuries like a broken back or skull. I most probably wouldn’t have survived this fall.”

 

An English couple who witnessed the horror unfolding said, “All of a sudden smoke engulfed everything and we saw people running down the fire escape. It was horrible chaos. When we heard that the young American we saw falling had survived, we thought this was a true Christmas miracle.”

 

Laurent Betourne, former GM of the Mercure Hotel in Pattaya, at that time was a guest at the Sunbeam Hotel with his wife Cristina and his three kids. Laurent said, “The actions of the staff of the Sunbeam Hotel were exemplary. They went from room to room, asking people to leave the hotel quietly, since there was danger that fire could spread. They also took very good care of the injured until the ambulances arrived.”

[aqua4 2]

Well it is open again with guests  [smiley=gasthrower.gif]

 

An the countdown begins for the next one.