[PreludeAsians]

Originally Posted by Charmaine

Conspiracy theorists have gone to town with speculation rife on Thai message boards that it wasn't merely pyrotechnics that started the blaze.

The party was labelled "Goodbye Santika" because it was going to be the last night for the club at its current Ekkamai premises. The lease for the new year wasn't going to be renewed because the landlord and the owner of the place couldn't agree on fresh terms and it was said that Santika was going to relocate with a different name.

It is common knowledge in Bangkok that when a place gets too popular for its own good then when it comes to re-negotiation the landlord will try their best to muscle as much additional lease rates as possible, sometimes at ridiculous levels. It is said that the owners of Santika were extremely unhappy with their new terms and, just possibly, planning to torch the place on fire on the last night as a revenge tactic. Many survivors have stepped forward to give their own account of what they saw, and contrary to news reports, none of them said they saw any inflammable fireworks or pyrotechnics on display on the stroke of midnight - most clubbers were holding onto sparklers for the countdown which were relatively harmless. Apparently, the only fireworks on display were fired from the building opposite Santika from the outside of the club. Eyewitnesses swear they saw the row of lights just above the stage catch fire first, followed by the ceiling just above it. One Thai pilot, who presumably must be trained sufficiently in fire safety procedures over the course of his career, described the fire as spreading throughout the club at an extremely unrealistic rate - it took all of 30 seconds for smoke to engulf the entire club and all the lights went off immediately thereafter, igniting immediate panic.

Of course, several other coincidental factors (form your own conclusions) only serve to fuel these speculations up a notch. Santika's website marketed this event by strategically placing bouts of flames throughout their pages, and there was a fake coffin in the club that very night. It didn't help that none of the Management team (or shareholders) were present on the stage or the event that night, as Thai club businessmen traditionally do on the last day, to thank patrons and communicate directly with their customers. All of the band members or MCs performing or scheduled to perform on the stage that night escaped unharmed.

Just to top it all off, the fire started just after midnight on January 1 - the owner's old lease legally ended on 31 December 2008. No prizes for guessing who will be responsible for the backlash if something happened immediately after the lease expired.

Just sharing what I've read, and I'm in no way a bandwagon jumper on conspiracy theories, but for the police to quickly discount the possibility of an arson without getting into a full inquiry first feels a tad irresponsible.

Yess very suspicious.. I am currently still in BKK and read the newpaper this morning and it said "the Police still can not contact the owner of The Santika Club."