Fire engulfs popular Bangkok pub, killing 27 people and injuring 73

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 those ⁠critically, in the incident that took place close to midnight on Sunday. Thirty-two people have been treated and returned home.

Anutin said a musician who was performing at the pub told him that he saw smoke coming out of a circuit breaker near the stage before the power went out, then an explosion was heard and thick smoke quickly filled the venue.

Many victims were found at the restrooms at the back of the pub, Anutin added.

Footage shared online by first responders showed a huge blaze raging and plumes coming out of the front door of the Na Ladprao pub in the northern part of the Thai capital. People were seen trying to flee 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 damaged interior of the pub.

AFP journalists saw several body bags on the ground outside the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar and restaurant, as well as odd shoes scattered by the back door, left behind in the panic.

“Everybody was running, squeezing into each other,” recalled Athipat “Ice” Wijarn, whose band was on stage when the fire broke out.

The lights went out, and they noticed smoke coming from the electrical circuit on the wall behind them, he told Thai talk show Hone-Krasae on Monday. As he crawled towards 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 keyboardist, Kwang, and the band’s singer, Breeze, both died.

Athipat said Breeze, his girlfriend, “did not suffer any burn wounds. It looked like she was just sleeping”.

It was the deadliest fire in Thailand since a blaze tore through Bangkok’s Santika club during New Year celebrations in 2009, killing 67 people and injuring more than 200.

Bangkok’s disaster administration said its initial assessment was that an electrical short circuit in a ceiling air conditioner might have caused the fire, while police said they were investigating the possibility that some exits were obstructed, doors were locked ‌and flammable materials were used in stage decorations and soundproofing to improve audio.

National police chief Kitrat Panphet said his investigators were hoping to speak to the owner of Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao, who is currently in intensive care in hospital.

“Most of the people who died were found in the toilets. When the fire broke out, they panicked. There were no lights,” he told reporters.

Police are examining if the exit doors were accessible, he said, noting that one was obstructed by a shelf, meaning only one person at a time could pass through.

They are also looking at the electrical wiring in the 50-year-old building and whether any decorations may have fuelled the fire, he said.

“At this time, police have established negligence as the primary theory guiding their investigation,” Kitrat told reporters.