A fire that engulfed a popular pub in northern Bangkok has killed 27 people and injured 73, with police investigating possible negligence, including obstructed emergency exits, as people scrambled to flee the burning venue.
“Twenty-seven bodies were moved out, lifeless bodies,” Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Monday, in televised remarks from the scene of the blaze. “Some were sent to hospitals. We are checking their conditions.”
The city’s medical department said 73 people were injured, 25 of them critically, in the incident, which occurred close to midnight on Sunday. Thirty two people have since been treated and discharged.
Smoke From Circuit Breaker, Then an Explosion
Anutin said a musician who was performing at the pub told him he saw smoke coming from a circuit breaker near the stage before the power went out, followed by an explosion and thick smoke that quickly filled the venue. Many victims, he added, were found in the restrooms at the back of the pub.
Footage shared online by first responders showed a huge blaze raging, with plumes of smoke pouring from the front door of the Na Ladprao pub in northern Bangkok. People were seen fleeing as thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
Firefighters took about half an hour to bring the fire under control. Photos of the aftermath show charred tables and chairs and the gutted interior of the venue. AFP journalists saw several body bags on the ground outside the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar and restaurant, along with odd shoes scattered near the back door, left behind in the panic to escape.
Band Members Among the Dead
“Everybody was running, squeezing into each other,” recalled Athipat “Ice” Wijarn, whose band was performing on stage when the fire broke out.
He said the lights went out and the band noticed smoke coming from an electrical circuit on the wall behind them. As he crawled toward the exit, he said, “there was an explosion, and I got hit at the back of my head. I felt the heat and the burn.”
The band’s keyboardist, Kwang, and its singer, Breeze, both died in the fire. Athipat said Breeze, his girlfriend, “did not suffer any burn wounds. It looked like she was just sleeping.”
