A huge fire on Friday razed a densely populated slum area in Bangkok near several Western embassies and luxury hotels, leaving thousands of Thais homeless, police said.
The blaze, one of the biggest in Bangkok in recent years, destroyed virtually all 700 wooden houses in the Tungmahamek slum area behind the Sathorn business district despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters.
”The fire effected more than 600 families in the slum, plus 48 families from police apartments, which means 3 000 to 4 000 people were made homeless,” said police Colonel Phanurat Meepien.
Thai broadcaster ITV labelled it the worst fire in Bangkok in 17 years.
Police said that at the time the fire was brought under control mid-afternoon there were no reports of casualties, and a cause of the blaze had not been determined.
The apparent lack of casualties was remarkable given the devastation wrought by the fire in a densely packed area where two-floor shanty-style homes appeared stacked on top of one another.
Footage from television helicopters above the scene showed smouldering destruction.
Makeshift shelters were quickly set up at nearby colleges, while relief assistance began to flow in from the Thai Red Cross and charities.
The fire was within a kilometre of the Australian, German and Danish embassies, as well as a United States military office, the Alliance Française and Thailand’s Immigration Department, but the structures were not affected.
Hundreds of firefighters battled for three hours against the blaze, whose large plume of black smoke was seen from several kilometres away rising hundreds of metres into the air.
But the slum went up in flames like a tinderbox. The wooden homes were brittle after Thailand’s months-long dry season.
More than 100 firetrucks had converged on Tungmahamek, and several ambulances were standing by on the slum’s periphery, but the vehicles were unable to navigate the narrow alleyways, an AFP photographer said.
He saw hundreds of panicked residents clogging the narrow streets, their arms full of valuables, or dragging possessions such as refrigerators or gas cylinders out of the fire’s reach.
Many were seen frantically unlocking their homes or shops to retrieve valuables, only to be turned away by the swarming inferno.
Resident Soonthorn Sae-eng (37) said he was drinking beer with friends when he heard the screams of ”fire” and ran to help, but the flames quickly got out of control.
”There are frequent fires in this community, and we were able to extinguish them every time, but not this time. The fire gutted all 700 houses,” he told reporters.
One tearful victim was calling her son to hurry home.
”Come back quickly, we have lost it all, I couldn’t take anything with me,” she said on television.
Some residents put all their effort into saving their homes, with several volunteers and residents seen throwing buckets of water on to flaming rooftops and escorting people to safety.
For some, the blaze was a total loss.
”I must have lost everything,” an elderly Thai woman said.
”My home was in the middle of the fire and there are no men in my house to help.”
Still, others went about their business with a steely resolve.
”I’m working now because there is no chance to save anything,” a motorbike taxi driver said before zooming off.
”I have only the clothes on my back, so I need to make money now.” — Sapa-AFP