National Work Safety Day in Thailand Date in the current year: May 10, 2025

The Kader Toy Factory fire is widely regarded as the worst industrial factory fire in history, killing 188 people, most of them women and teenage girls from rural families. The factory, located in Nakhon Pathom province's Sam Phran district, was owned and operated by Kader Industrial. It manufactured licensed plastic dolls and stuffed animals for foreign companies such as Disney and Mattel, primarily for export to the United States and other developed countries.

The factory was inadequately designed and constructed. Although fire exits were included in the building plans, they were never actually built, and the existing exterior doors were kept locked. The structure relied on uninsulated steel beams that quickly lost integrity and collapsed when exposed to the heat of the fire.

On May 10, 1993, at approximately 4:00 p.m., a small fire broke out on the first floor of the building, in the area where finished products were packaged and stored, which meant that there was a significant amount of fuel load (fabric, plastics, stuffing materials, etc.). Workers on the upper floors were told that the fire was small and there was no need to evacuate and were instructed to continue working. There was no fire alarm.

However, the abundance of flammable products and raw materials caused the fire to spread quickly. Workers in the building tried to escape, but the exit doors on the ground floor were locked, and the stairwell soon collapsed on those gathered on the ground floor due to the fire. Many workers on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors jumped out of windows to escape the smoke and flames, resulting in serious injuries and deaths.

Security guards tried to extinguish the fire, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The local fire department was called at 4:21 p.m. Firefighters arrived about twenty minutes later and found the building on the verge of collapse. The building collapsed at 5:14 p.m. Workers in neighboring buildings had evacuated before the flames spread to their buildings, and firefighters extinguished the fires.

As a result of the fire, 168 people died in the factory, 20 more died in the hospital, and 469 were injured. The causes of death were smoke inhalation, severe burns, or injuries sustained when the building collapsed. After the fire was extinguished, it took several days to recover all the bodies from the rubble.

The Kader Toy Factory fire received significant media coverage both in Thailand and abroad due to the astonishing number of casualties. Four years after the fire, the Thai government designated the anniversary as National Work Safety Day to highlight the importance of safety and work, and to honor the memory of those who died in the fire.

Since the incident, the Thai government has implemented or improved laws to improve workplace safety, but there are many workplaces in Thailand that are not safe for workers, and National Work Safety Day is a reminder that much more needs to be done in this regard.