Khlong Toei blaze hurts one and leaves 1,800 homeless
Women and children forced from their Khlong Toei homes by a raging fire early on Tuesday morning take a rest under an expressway as they wait for assistance.
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A fire destroyed more than 200 homes and displaced more than 1,800 residents in Bangkok's Khlong Toei slum late on Monday night, leaving one woman with minor burns and investigators scratching to find the cause.
A man accused of torching his former home in a jealous rage said he would never do such a thing to the community where he was born and his parents still lived. Kitti Malithong said he was with his new wife at another home and had not met his ex-wife again after she had found a new husband. Tha Rua police were interviewing neighbours who claimed they saw the man throw a bottle of petrol at his former home. But he had not been charged with any crime. Nongluck, Kitti's ex-wife, said she smelled something burning and heard a loud bang before the fire broke out on the first floor of her home. She jumped from the second floor to escape the approaching flames and sustained bruises and minor blistering to her face and arms. Police are checking her claim of a blackout which conflicted with what her neighbours had said. The Lock 1 section of the vast Khlong Toei slum contains around 500 homes on about four rai of land owned by the Port Authority of Thailand. Governor Apirak Kosayodhin declared the area a disaster zone for 45 days and said the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration would consult with the port authority on what to do with the site and the 1,800 victims. Households would receive Bt3,000 each in assistance from the city. Many people were given survival kits and relief supplies yesterday morning. Acting National Police chief Seripisut Temiyavej said the incident was possibly a set-up. He assigned a special team of police to look into the cause of the inferno, which started at 1.15am and spread over a large area before multiple blasts rocked the area as cooking gas cylinders exploded. It took 30 fire trucks and hundreds of firemen three hours to contain the conflagration. Apart from the firemen, police, rescue workers and city officials, senior officers from the First Cavalry Regiment joined in the probe ito determine if arson was a motive.
Mayuree Sukyingcharoenwong The Nation
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