A blaze that ripped through a packed Bangkok bar, the worst fire to strike the Thai capital’s nightlife in over a decade, has killed at least 27 people and left nearly two dozen more in critical condition.
Distraught relatives on Monday morning searched for loved ones among the dead.
Images of the inferno shared on social media show flames shooting out from the entrance of the Na Ladprao pub in the Chatuchak district, as patrons run for safety. On the pavement outside, rescuers try to resuscitate several people, while dazed party-goers stagger around the scene with bandages covering severe burns on their arms and legs.
At the time of the fire early on Monday morning, the pub was crowded with hundreds of revellers – with charred tables, bar stools and a drum kit on the stage, a scorched testament to the moment the flames swept through the venue, trapping panicked people in the bathrooms, where many of the bodies were found.
One member of the band on stage as the tragedy unfolded told reporters he saw smoke coming down from above, then the power went out and fiery “explosions” ripped through the venue.
“I came with 11 people, including the band members and our friends,” he told reporters, with bandages around the back of his head. “As of now, there are only five or six of us accounted for.”
Firefighters swiftly doused the flames, which Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said might have been started by a circuit breaker near the stage. Investigations will begin in earnest later on Monday.
“From what I have heard, most of the victims ran to the back of the building, probably looking for exits,” he told reporters.
A stunned young woman speaking on Thai television said she was drinking inside the pub with her sister when the blaze erupted.
“My sister was in the bathroom when I heard a scream ‘there’s fire’, so I ran out. All I could see was so much smoke everywhere; I couldn’t even breathe,” she told Amarin TV, which did not name her. “I don’t know where my sister is. I have reported a missing person. I’m praying that she’s OK.”
‘Smoke everywhere’
Thai police have set up an emergency desk nearby for relatives to report people they fear are missing in the blaze.
Authorities on Monday are turning their attention to the cause of the blaze, in a country where safety standards are lax or routinely ignored in the rush to pack in customers.
“Materials used in the building may have caused the fire to spread fast … the smoke trapped in the building, we think people died of smoke inhalation,” Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipun said in a phone interview with a morning television news show on Channel 3.
“We need to check forensics, but when I was on site, I didn’t really see the exit signs that visibly,” he said, adding the venue was licensed and had all the correct permits to operate.
Another 63 people injured in the incident have been hospitalised, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Firefighter Chakrit Khongkom, 45, told Reuters he arrived to see the pub alight and many patrons stranded inside, several of them trying to escape from the back of the venue. The few people coming through the front were burnt.
“The smoke had engulfed 100 per cent of the venue. It 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.
Monday’s fire is the deadliest to strike Bangkok since 2009, when indoor pyrotechnics triggered an inferno on New Year’s Eve at the Santika Club in the city’s upscale Ekkamai district.
Sixty-seven people died in that fire, shocking the nation and sparking an urgent reappraisal of safety across Thailand’s nightlife scene.
But venue operators across the country routinely flout regulations, with bars and restaurants stacking into areas where serving alcohol is allowed.
Twenty-six people died at Mountain B club in Pattaya in 2022 in a blaze which a court later ruled was caused by negligence, and saw four owners jailed.
