A fire tore through a popular bar in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district late Sunday, killing at least 27 people and injuring more than 60 others after panicked customers fled toward a rear bathroom that offered no way out.
The blaze broke out near the stage of Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao, in the city’s Chom Phon subdistrict, at around 11:50 p.m., then spread rapidly through the ceiling and flammable interior decorations, cutting power and filling the room with smoke, according to witnesses and Bangkok officials. A passing driver alerted the fire department, and firefighters arriving just after midnight brought the blaze under control within about 30 minutes, deploying additional crews from the Phahon Yothin, Phaya Thai and Huai Khwang stations to support the effort. Most of the dead were found in a bathroom at the back of the building, where survivors said they had sought shelter because the venue had no fire escape.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who visited the scene early Monday, said 27 bodies had been recovered by the time he arrived. “We have recovered 27 bodies; others are being sent to the hospital,” he told reporters. Officials said nine men and 18 women were among the dead, while more than 60 people were hospitalized, including 22 in critical condition. Anutin said a musician who had been performing when the fire broke out described hearing a blast before smoke and flames forced the crowd to flee, and said many who died had run toward the back of the building and tried to hide in the toilet rather than toward the front entrance.
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Motorcyclist Surin Jaiharn told the Press he helped roughly five people escape the burning building, using clothing to put out flames that had caught on their bodies. “I feel depressed. I saw many deaths,” he said, adding that he did not know the fate of everyone he had helped pull free. The driver who first alerted the fire department told the Thai outlet Daily News that he broke windows at the venue to help two more people climb out.
Bangkok’s disaster mitigation department said preliminary findings pointed to an electrical short circuit in an air conditioning unit near the stage as a possible cause, though officials said no official determination had been made. Suriyachai Raviwan, the department’s director, said initial evidence suggested most victims died of smoke inhalation rather than burns.
Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said the bar’s flammable ceiling and interior decorations may have accelerated the fire’s spread, and said several people had been found unconscious near an emergency exit, raising the possibility that the escape route had been obstructed. He said that determination would require further examination by forensic investigators. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration set up a coordination center for relatives of the dead and missing, saying formal identification of victims was still pending medical and forensic review.
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The confirmed toll could still rise. Anwut Pho-ampai of the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, a volunteer rescue group that assisted at the scene, said Monday that the number of dead appeared to exceed the official count of 27, though authorities had not revised the figure. Officials had also not said as of Monday whether any foreign nationals were among the casualties.
The Chatuchak district office ordered the building that housed the bar closed for 30 days. Authorities said they would pay 29,300 baht, or about $880, to the families of each person killed, and 4,000 baht, or roughly $120, to each person receiving hospital treatment, as the government moved to respond to what officials described as one of the deadliest venue fires in the Thai capital in recent years.
Sunday’s fire is the latest in a string of similar disasters in Thailand despite repeated official pledges to tighten fire and electrical safety enforcement, which watchdogs and survivors of past blazes have said remains inconsistent at many venues. A 2022 fire at a bar south of Bangkok killed 22 people, and a nightclub fire in the capital on New Year’s Day in 2009 killed 66 people and injured more than 200 others. A 2024 fire caused by an electrical short circuit at Chatuchak’s well-known open-air market killed roughly 1,000 animals housed there.
Authorities said the full cause of Sunday’s fire and the condition of the venue’s emergency exits would depend on the outcome of the continuing forensic investigation.