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

Footage shared online by first responders showed a huge blaze raging in the Na Ladprao pub.

A fire that engulfed a popular pub in northern Bangkok has killed 27 people and injured 73, marking Thailand’s worst such incident for almost two decades.

“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.”

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 place.

Many of 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 billows into the sky. Rescuers said the fire was reported around midnight.

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 around 11:00 pm (1600 GMT) Sunday.

The lights went out and they noticed smoke come 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”.

Of the injured people, at least 25 are in intensive care, according to the Erawan Emergency Centre.

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.

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.

“We presume it is carelessness,” Kitrat said.