(Bangkok) At least thirteen people died in Thailand in the fire of a nightclub near the tourist city of Pattaya on the night of Thursday to Friday, one of the deadliest disasters since 2009.
Posted at 11:37 p.m.
A local rescue report put 13 dead – four women and nine men – and 41 injured.
“There are no foreigners” among the deceased, a police official from Phlu Ta Luang sub-district told AFP.
The fire broke out overnight from Thursday to Friday around 1 a.m. (2 p.m. ET), at Mountain B, in the district of Sattahip, not far from the seaside resort of Pattaya, about 180 kilometers from the capital Bangkok.
The fire was contained around 4 a.m., a member of the Sawang Rojanathammasathan Foundation relief team told AFP.
The presence on the walls of acoustic foam, supposed to isolate the building from outside noise, favored the spread of the fire and complicated the task of the firefighters, the rescuers said in a press release.
A video they released shows the building in flames, from which several people are trying to escape, clothes on fire, in the middle of thick black smoke.
67 deaths in 2009
Other images broadcast by Thai media show the completely charred interior of the nightclub, where tables and chairs lie on the ground.
Most of the deceased victims were found near the entrance and in the toilets, their bodies bearing severe burn marks, according to rescuers.
Basic safety rules are frequently ignored in Thailand, a popular destination for Western and Asian tourists, which recently eased entry requirements to revive tourism, which has stalled during the coronavirus pandemic.
On New Year’s Eve on 1er January 2009, a fire in a nightclub in Bangkok, the Santika, killed 67 people, including three Singaporeans, a Japanese and a Burmese. Many Western tourists had been injured.
The fire had started because of fireworks fired when the rock group “Burn” was performing. The owner of the establishment had been sentenced for negligence to three years in prison, as well as the owner of the company which had installed the lights.
In 2012, four people died in a nightclub fire in the tourist town of Phukhet (south), caused by an electrical problem.