Bangkok, July 13: At least 27 people lost their lives and 63 others sustained injuries after a fast-moving fire devastated the Na Ladprao pub in northern Bangkok. The incident occurred just after midnight on Monday, prompting an immediate mobilization of emergency rescue teams to the northern district of the Thai capital. The swift spread of the fire trapped numerous individuals inside the building before emergency crews managed to suppress the flames.
The medical crisis remains severe for many of the survivors who managed to escape the burning building. Governor Chadchart Sittipunt maintained that 22 of the 63 people hospitalized following the incident remain in a critical condition. The Governor described how the situation deteriorated rapidly, explaining that the fire rapidly spread to the decorative items on the ceiling, creating heavy smoke that engulfed the whole pub in a matter of minutes.
An initial assessment of the building’s layout indicates that many victims became trapped while searching for an exit in the sudden darkness. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul arrived at the site early Monday morning to inspect the aftermath and coordinate with local leadership. The Prime Minister stated that a lot of people had died near the restrooms because it appeared that they went there in order to take refuge from the fire. He went on to say that the major cause of death was the inhaling of the smoke because the people could not find the way out in the dark.
The investigation into the source of the fire points toward an electrical failure right before the venue was consumed by flames. The Prime Minister affirmed that the fire reportedly originated from the vicinity of the stage, citing testimonies of musicians, who saw smoke coming out of a circuit breaker before the lights went off. Members of the performing group supported this sequence of events, stating that there had been an explosion following the blackout, and then the flames spread throughout the place.
As patrons fled, online videos captured the intensity of the scene at the main exit. Frightened attendees rushed out of the premises while flames streamed from the main door of the building, and smoke quickly filled the place, making visibility nearly impossible. It took firefighters about 30 minutes to bring the fire under control, and pictures from the aftermath later depicted the total destruction of the pub’s interior. This tragedy follows previous entertainment venue disasters in the country, including a 2022 pub fire that killed 14 people, as authorities launch a full investigation to determine the exact cause of Monday’s disaster.
