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A series of explosions, going off concurrently with a Chinese New Year fireworks in Suphan Buri, killed four people, one of them a fireman, and seriously wounded 20 others.
The explosions also set 50 homes ablaze. The fireworks display at Dragon Park in Suphan Buri's Muang district kicked off at around 7.30pm, before several blasts started taking place, injuring several members of the public who were viewing the display. Exact numbers of those wounded were not available.
Also, fires were seen erupting at several locations at press time, though certain reports said the blazes had been brought under control.
Veteran politician Jongchai Thingtham said the explosions had taken place during the final set of the display, and politicians Banharn and Chumphol Silapa-archa, who were among the crowd, were not hurt by the blasts.
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The powerful fireworks explosion during the Chinese New Year celebration at Suphan Buri's Dragon Park on Tuesday night blasted all structures within four kilometres and turned the lives of more than 500 people upside down.
"All the houses in my neighbourhood are just rubble now," a resident said yesterday.
The fireworks were fired from a community close to Dragon Park, where more than 200 houses were damaged.
The grand public festival - broadcast live on nationwide TV - went terribly wrong when some fireworks went off, leaving four people dead and at least 74 injured.
The disaster area near Dragon Park and the city pillar shrine has been sealed off. A temporary shelter has been set up at Phra Si Rattana Maha That Temple, which was also hit, to accommodate the homeless victims.
"Police are investigating the cause of the explosion," Suphan Buri Governor Somsak Phureesisak said.
The men working on the fireworks show or the equipment could be responsible for the accident, he said.
Three fireworks workers were killed at the scene while a woman, Lamyong Pansakul, 52, succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.
Somsak said the Foundation of Suphan Buri's City Pillar Shrine has promised to provide full assistance to all victims.
Chao Phraya Yommaraj Hospital tended to 60 injured, of whom 44 have been discharged. Only one, a fireman named Thanit Klinkate, remained in intensive care.
At Suppamit Hospital, 14 victims were treated and nine of them were allowed to go home.
Banharn Silapa-archa, chief adviser of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, who founded Dragon Park, yesterday visited the patients at Suppamit Hospital and offered them Bt10,000 each.
Banharn, Tourism Minister Chumpol Silapa-archa and Chinese Ambassador Guan Mu were guests of honour at Dragon Park.
A local woman said she was watching TV at home when part of the wall suddenly collapsed on her and thick fumes began spreading all over.
"I couldn't see anything at all. So I made a real struggle to get out from under the wall and started running for my life," she said.
The scope of the devastation was massive. Some vehicles were just burnt shells, and their windshields were completely shattered into small pieces.
Somsak said that although the Chinese New Year celebrations at Dragon Park would continue till Sunday, there would be no more pyrotechnics.
"In fact, the organising committee planned more firework displays but we have already confiscated all the prepared fireworks," he said.
A source said 500-600 fireworks were seized and the explosive ordnance disposal team was now removing their fuses.
Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit said he received a report that the fireworks might have been etonated because the pipes used to shoot them were not set at the right angle.
He said he would instruct all provincial governments to be more careful in organising activities.
"But I'm not going to ban the use of fireworks because they add colour to celebrations," he said.
Major Songphon Iambonrit, formerly with the Army's Ordnance Department, also suspected that either defective launch cylinders or an inappropriate angle triggered the accident.
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