A huge fire tore through a music venue in Bangkok overnight, killing at least 27 people and leaving 25 in critical condition in the worst blaze in 17 years.
Footage from the Rong Beer Na Ladprao bar in the northern part of the Thai capital showed people fleeing as flames shot up the one-story building and thick black smoke billowed into the sky. Shoes lost and scattered as their owners tried to escape were seen in photos after the disaster.
Bangkok city officials said the fire broke out before midnight on Sunday, and it took half an hour for firefighters to bring it under control.
By noon on Monday morning, the area was cordoned off as dozens of Thai police investigated the charred remains to find clues as to what caused the fire.
The building’s street-facing windows were blown out and debris littered the sidewalk, including burned televisions, speakers and an electric guitar. Outside, the extent of the destruction was visible through the broken windows, where burnt tables, some still holding empty beer bottles, stood inside.
Thailand’s national police chief, Kittharath Punpetch, said most of the dead were found trapped in windowless bathrooms near the back exits of the bar, where they may have taken shelter to escape the flames in the hall.
He said the exit was not yet used, people may have been blocked by the table that was placed in the hall to sell candy, or it was too dark for them to find it.
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Access to another outlet near the kitchen may have reduced the unit’s shelves and lockers, said Kittharath, who visited the scene Monday morning. There were signs that at least some exit doors may have been closed, he added.
Investigators are focusing on the ceiling above the work platform, where they found items that may have been used as decorative items, he said. The police will check whether flammable materials were used inside and how the electrical cables were installed on the roof.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told the media that a singer who was performing at a bar told him that he saw smoke coming from a circuit breaker near the stage before the power went out, then an explosion was heard and the smoke quickly filled.
According to the emergency center in Bangkok’s Erawan, the number of injured people is 73, and 25 are in critical condition. The Bangkok government, Chadchart Sittipunt, said that most of the dead were caused by smoke inhalation and that the authorities were busy identifying the victims as many did not have identification.
Buddhist monks came to pray
Some Buddhist monks visited the site on Monday morning to pray for the victims, while nurses handed out face masks to people nearby to protect them from the smoke and further development of the burning building.
A registration center was then set up to collect information from relatives who came to the scene to look for their loved ones.
Singer Sukanya Wongwongwai said she was singing nearby when she heard the news of the fire and rushed to the scene because a number of her colleagues were singing in a bar. He said one of them died, three were hospitalized and one is still missing.
“According to what I heard from the people who were inside, when the fire broke out, everything went dark, the electricity was off and there was smoke everywhere, they couldn’t find other people,” he said.
Concerned family members gathered at Bangkok’s Institute of Forensic Medicine this afternoon to identify the bodies of the deceased.
In tears, the woman, who asked to be identified only by the name Nid, said that she had recently identified the bodies of her daughter and her son-in-law.
She described her son-in-law as “a good person, who worked hard to earn money” and said her daughter had just graduated.
“He just started working as a computer teacher, now they are dead,” he said.
A migrant worker at a bar has lost his younger brother
Keo Oudone Poungpany, 24, was at the center to identify the body of his younger brother. The two, who are migrant workers from neighboring Laos, were bar staff working when the fire broke out.
Poungpany said he was using a small house outside the bar when the fire broke out.
“I really don’t know what happened,” he said, recounting that when he returned to the bar, he met a crowd of people fleeing the flames and heard a loud, terrifying noise.
Outside the bar, he started yelling at his brother. “The heat was unbearable, I couldn’t go back in,” she said.
“For now, I want to bring my younger brother’s body back home,” said Poungpany. “I want to bring him home to my parents. My parents are waiting for their children to come back together, but now one is gone.”
In 2022, 14 people died in a fire at a music venue in the east of the country. And more than a decade before that, 67 people died and more than 200 were injured when a fire broke out in the middle of Jan. 1, 2009, a New Year’s Eve celebration at Santika nightclub in the Thai capital. That fire was apparently caused by an indoor fireworks display.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
