Bangkok pub fire kills 27, injures many: What we know | Story

The narrator

The fire – one of Thailand’s worst in recent history – has also injured more than 70 people, many of them seriously.

A deadly fire has ripped through a gym in the Thai capital of Bangkok, killing at least 27 people and injuring many others.

The the fire is broken the famous Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao area around midnight on Sunday, as people tried to escape amid black smoke billowing from the northern part of the city.

Recommended Articles

list of things 3end of series

Videos shared online by first responders showed a large fire coming out of the bar’s front door.

It was Thailand’s deadliest fire since the fire that ripped through Bangkok’s Santika club on New Year’s Eve in 2009, killing 67 people and injuring more than 200.

So what caused the Sunday night fire and what have the authorities done about it? Here’s what we know:

What happened?

Bangkok city officials said the fire broke out shortly before midnight on Sunday, and it took half an hour for firefighters to bring it under control.

“Everyone was running, pushing each other,” Athipat “Ice” Wijarn, whose band was on stage when the fire broke out, told Thai show Hone-Krasae on Monday.

The lights went out, and they saw smoke coming from the lights around the wall behind them, he said. As he crawled through the exit, he said, “There was an explosion, and I hit the back of my head, and I felt hot and hot.

In a televised address as the fire broke out, Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Monday said 27 “lifeless” bodies had been removed. “Some have been sent to hospitals, we are investigating their condition,” he said.

The city’s medical department reported that 73 people were injured, 25 of them seriously, while 32 people were treated and sent home.

What caused the fire?

The pub is located at a busy intersection in the north of Bangkok, connected by trains. It is also adjacent to two shopping malls, walking distance to a movie theater, large parks, and the Chatuchak Weekend Market which is popular during the day with foreign tourists.

The area has several bars with live music that are usually packed on weekends.

City officials said their initial assessment was that an electrical short in the roof air conditioner could have started the fire.

Police officials said they are also investigating the possibility of barricaded exits, locked doors, and incendiary devices used to decorate the stage and muffle the sound of the bar.

Thai police chief Kittharath Punpetch told reporters that most of the dead were found trapped in windowless bathrooms near an alley behind the bar, where they could hide to escape the flames.

He also said that the exit was not used, and people may have been prevented from reaching it either by the table set up in the hall to sell sweets, or because it was too dark to find the exit.

Authorities are also inspecting electrical wiring in the 50-year-old home and investigating whether any decorations may have caused the fire, he said.

“For now, the police have established negligence as the primary theory guiding their investigation,” Kittharath added.

Reporting from Bangkok, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said there were four exits in the bar, “but several of them may have been closed”.

And apparently that’s where they found the most bodies.

The area around the mall has been cordoned off as more police search the charred remains to determine the cause of the fire.

Cheng said Sunday’s fire has caused concern in Bangkok.

“This is not the first time this has happened,” he said. “The worst accident was in 2009 when a sports center burned down, killing more than 60 people. And every time it happens, we hear government officials promising that fire safety laws will be changed, yet these accidents continue to happen.