Bangkok: mourning begins as police sift through Santika nightclub rubbleThe scene outside the ruined Santika nightclub in Bangkok on Friday
As roses piled up on a makeshift trestle in front of the charred Santika nightclub in Bangkok where as many as 60 party-goers lost their lives in the early hours of the New Year, Thai police continued to sift through the ash and rubble to try and determine the trigger for the carnage.
Many have blamed celebratory fireworks and sparklers lit to see in the New Year, others have pointed at a possible electrical fault.
Officials have slammed the lack of emergency exits and sprinkler systems. The Thai press reported the club had only one fire extinguisher to cover three floors and as many as 1,000 revellers.
Friends and relatives of the dead left flowers at midnight last night, almost exactly 24 hours after the flames began their deadly assault on one of Bangkok's most popular nightclubs.
As well as the dead, who include a Singapore national, more than 200 people were injured in the inferno, including as many as 35 foreigners, including at least four Britons, as well as Australians and French and Dutch nationals.
As video footage emerged today showing happy revellers waving sparklers inside the club just moments before it caught fire, the Thai police continued their investigation into the causes of the fire that ripped through the two-storey building, trapping hundreds inside.
Alex Wargacki, a 29-year-old British forex trader, said from his hospital bed that he tried an emergency exit when he felt the heat in the Santika Club, only to find it was welded shut to prevent the pilfering of liquor.
Originally from Finchley in North London, Mr Wargacki said he remained unsure whether he would abandon his life in Thailand, where he was lived for the past four years, and return to the UK.
"It depends on their responses to what's happening," he said. "I want someone to pick up the tab here. At the moment, I need cash. I have to pay this bill. I don't know what it's going to cost, maybe three or four thousand pounds."
As well as burns on his face and hands, Mr Wargacki has lungs affected by smoke inhalation, and the hospital doctors have been trying to extract carbon from his lungs.
He is one of four Britons injured in the blaze, including Steven Hall and Oliver Smart. Friends of an unnamed female British school teacher, aged 34, believe she was killed in the fire, however the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have said that it did not believe that there were any Britons among the dead.
Briton Oliver Smart is also in the intensive care unit at the Bangkok hospital where Mr Wargacki is recuperating. Mr Smart has been sedated for the last two days, but Mr Wargacki said they were brought it at the some time, and Mr Smart was screaming.
"He came in on the gurney next to mine," he said. "I think one of his lungs collapsed."
Steven Hall, from South Wales, has third degree burns to his left hand and his back, and a fourth Briton, who wants to remain anonymous, has also been quite seriously injured.
Mr Wargacki said he was lucky he was getting hospital treatment.
"Some people I know went home," he said. "Some of the Thais are just lying in bed."
