By Chalinee Thirasupa, Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng
BANGKOK, July 13 (Reuters) – An explosive fire at a pub in Thailand’s capital Bangkok killed 27 people and injured dozens, officials said on Monday, with police investigating possible negligence including obstructed emergency exits as people scrambled to flee the burning venue.
One video of the incident posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed thick smoke billowing out of the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao pub, before an intense horizontal plume of fire jets out of a doorway, as screaming customers fled the premises around midnight (1700 GMT) on Sunday.
“Most of the victims ran to the back of the building, into the bathroom, and there was no clear sign of a fire exit,” said Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the site early on Monday.
Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok’s disaster prevention and mitigation department, said 63 people were injured, 22 critically.
The pub is located in a busy intersection in northern Bangkok, connected by its urban rail systems and adjacent to two shopping malls, within walking distance of cinemas, large parks and the Chatuchak weekend market that is popular in the daytime with foreign tourists.
The area has a number of bars with live music that are typically crowded on weekend nights.
The city’s disaster administration said its initial assessment was that an electrical short circuit in a ceiling air conditioner may have caused the fire, while police said there may have been issues with fire exits, overloaded wiring and use of flammable materials in renovations to enhance sound.
“At this time, police have established negligence as the primary theory guiding their investigation,” National Police chief Kittiratt Phanphet told reporters.
‘SMOKE WAS EVERYWHERE’
Firefighter Chakrit Khongkom, 45, said he arrived on the first fire truck to see the pub alight and many patrons stranded inside, several trying to escape from the back of the venue. The few people coming through the front of the venue were burnt.
“The smoke was everywhere,” he said. “Most of the survivors were choking on smoke.”
Body-camera footage from an emergency worker seen by Reuters showed firefighters in oxygen masks moving through the darkened remains of the pub with torches as they searched for survivors and victims.
Several victims could be seen lying prone on the floor near the pub’s toilets while rescue workers carried in stretchers.
“We sent in a rescue and search squad and found that a lot of people were inside the toilet. Most of them were trying to escape to the back because they saw that the flame was at the front,” said Chakrit.
In the early hours of the morning, numbered bodies lay in two rows awaiting removal as forensics teams inspected the site. Firefighters stood near the pub’s entrance, its facade scorched and blackened by the blaze.
In the hours after the fire, Sukanya Wongwongwai waited outside the pub, looking for a missing friend. Survivors had told her about the chaos that had ensued inside.
“My friend, who was singing on stage, said at first they noticed the smell of something burning, then a little after they saw the ceiling was on fire,” said Sukanya, 32.
“Some people were injured because of the (debris) from the ceiling because it seems that the ceiling was made out of foam material to absorb sound.”
RECORD OF FIRES
Entertainment venues have suffered several fires in recent years in Thailand, where fire safety inspections are conducted but protocols are not always consistently followed by proprietors.
At least 13 people were killed in a nightclub fire in Chonburi in 2022, while 65 people died in a blaze during a New Year party at a packed Bangkok club in 2009, where an investigation determined corruption and safety breaches were key factors.
City authorities said Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao had a license as a restaurant and live music venue and had been inspected in April this year, when fire exits, emergency signs and fire extinguishers were in place.
The governor’s office said the pub’s ceiling materials, decorations and indoor equipment would be examined, as well as the possibility that tables and other items may have been blocking exits.
In a video shared by Anutin’s office during an inspection of the scene, the premier was told a door that was once an exit was bolted, with the proprietor afraid that customers would slip out without paying their bills.
The door had a sign that said “staff only” and could be opened to the outside, but an official told Anutin customers would not have been aware.
“If they had run this way, it would have been fine,” Anutin responded.
Based on survivor accounts, officials said the fire may have started at the front stage section of the pub and spread rapidly, forcing many to run to the back of the venue, which houses the kitchen and bathrooms.
“There are two fire exits, one is near the kitchen. There were beer crates in the way,” Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters, adding that there was a table in the way of the other fire exit. He said a forensic examination was underway.
(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chalinee Thirasupa, Napat Wesshasartar, Chayut Setboonsarng and Kitiphong Thaichareon in Bangkok and Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Lucy Craymer; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Nia Williams, Andrea Ricci and Lincoln Feast.)
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