The fire drill tomorrow will be held from 10am to midday, explained Phongsak Sirithat, Chief of the Phuket City Municipality office of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM).
“The market will be evacuated during this time,” he told The Phuket News late this afternoon.
The fire drill will see fire trucks deployed to the market to practice their response, which will affect traffic, Mr Phongsak said.
“The fire drill may inconvenience people in the area and passing traffic. I apologize for any inconvenience, but the road (Ranong Rd) will not be closed during the exercise,” he said.
“And please don’t panic if you see it, it is just a drill,” he added.
Mr Phongsak explained that the drill was organised after he was informed of a slew of safety incidents at the market.
“I received a lot of reports about fire incidents from non-standard electrical equipment, gas leaks, short circuits and so on,” he said.
“Most recently, there were cooking gas leaks at three different shops at this market just last week. Luckily, the leaks were stopped without any injuries and before any damage was done,” Mr Phongsak explained.
“The market vendors need to learn what to do if a fire breaks out, but our goal is to avoid any fires from starting, which could happen at any time,” he said.
“We want people at the market to have more awareness and know how to prevent it.” he added.
Mr Phongsak highlighted the importance of market fire safety by recalling the fire that destroyed the Chatuchak Market, on Surin Rd on the east side of Phuket Town, in May last year. (See story here.)
The blaze destroyed some 80 shops at the market, ripping through the site in just one hour, destroying stalls and the vendors goods totalling an estimated B4-5 million. (See story here.)
“We learned a lesson from that fire,” Mr Phongsak said.
“It started from an electrical short-circuit causing sparks, which is a very common cause of household fires throughout the country. We want to prevent any fires starting from any causes,” he said.
“So if you see a fire or something that might cause a fire, please call 199,” Mr Phongsak added.