Bangkok bar fire kills 27; blocked exits, flammable decor under investigation

A fire swept through a Bangkok music bar just before midnight on Sunday, killing 27 people and injuring 73 others in Thailand's deadliest blaze in nearly two decades. The Rong Beer Na Ladprao bar, a single-storey venue in the city's Ladprao district, filled with thick black smoke within minutes. Firefighters brought the flames under control roughly thirty minutes after the first alarm, but by then the damage was done. Twenty-five of the injured were in critical condition. By Monday morning, the charred shell of the building sat sealed behind police tape, its street-facing windows blown out, debris scattered across the pavement—burnt tables still holding empty beer bottles, charred speakers, an electric guitar lying among the rubble.

Many of those who died never made it out. Investigators found most of the bodies clustered in windowless bathrooms near one of the rear exits, where people had apparently sought shelter from the advancing flames. The national police chief, Kittharath Punpetch, outlined a grim picture of how the exits themselves became traps. One rear exit had not been used at all; a table selling sweets had been positioned in the hallway leading to it, or the darkness made it impossible to locate. Another exit near the kitchen had been narrowed by shelving units and lockers. There were signs that at least some of the exit doors had been locked shut. A musician who was performing at the bar told the Prime Minister he saw smoke coming from a circuit breaker near the stage before the power cut out entirely. An explosion followed. Then came the smoke—so thick and sudden that people could not find each other or the way out.

The investigation is now focused on three areas: the emergency exits themselves, the materials used to decorate the ceiling above the stage, and the electrical wiring that ran across it. Police are examining whether flammable materials had been installed as part of the bar's interior design, and how the wiring had been routed and maintained. The Bangkok Governor said most deaths were caused by smoke inhalation. Many of the victims were not carrying identity documents, making the work of identifying bodies slow and painful.

By Monday morning, Buddhist monks had arrived at the site to pray. Nurses distributed face masks to people nearby because of the lingering smoke and fumes. A registration point was set up for relatives searching for the missing. Singer Sukanya Wongwongwai, who had been performing at a nearby venue, rushed to the bar when she heard the news. Several of her bandmates had been performing there that night. One had died. Three were hospitalized. One was still missing. "From what I heard from people who were inside, when the fire started everything went dark," she said. "The power was out and there was smoke everywhere, so they couldn't locate other people."

At Bangkok's Institute of Forensic Medicine, families arrived to identify the dead. A woman who gave only her nickname, Nid, stood in tears after identifying her daughter and son-in-law. Her daughter had just graduated and had recently started working as a computer teacher. Her son-in-law, she said, was a very good person who worked hard to earn money. "And now they're dead," she said. Keo Oudone Poungpany, 24, came to identify his younger brother. The two were migrant workers from Laos employed at the bar. Poungpany had been in a restroom outside the building when the fire began. As he walked back toward the bar, he saw dozens of people running from the flames and heard terrifyingly loud noises. The heat was unbearable; he could not get back inside. "For now, I want to bring my younger brother's body back home," he said. "I want to bring him home to my parents. My parents are waiting for their kids to come back together, but now one is gone."

This fire marks Thailand's deadliest blaze since 2009, when 67 people died and more than 200 were injured in a fire at Bangkok's Santika nightclub on New Year's Eve. In 2022, a fire at a music bar in eastern Thailand killed 14 people. As families continue to wait for identification of their loved ones, authorities are pressing forward with their investigation into how a venue filled with people became, in the span of minutes, a place from which escape was nearly impossible.