Bangkok Bar Fire Kills 33, Including Most of the Band Playing When Blaze Broke Out
The flash fire is the latest in a string of deadly blazes at Thai nightlife venues, reviving calls for stricter enforcement of fire codes.
A flash fire tore through a music bar in Bangkok this week, killing at least 33 people, including four of the six core members of the band that was performing when the blaze erupted, NPR reported.
Surviving bandmates and friends are now mourning colleagues who died doing what they loved, according to NPR's account of the tragedy, which devastated the small musical community built around the venue.
The fire is the latest in a recurring pattern of deadly blazes at Bangkok entertainment venues, the BBC reported, noting that similar horrific scenes have played out in the city before. Those past disasters spurred calls for reform, the BBC said, raising the question of why the same failures keep repeating themselves.
The scale of the loss — more than 30 dead in a single venue — has drawn renewed scrutiny to fire safety enforcement in Thailand's crowded nightlife districts, where narrow exits, flammable interiors and lax code enforcement have repeatedly proven lethal, according to the BBC's reporting on the pattern of past fires.
No cause for the fire has been detailed in the available reporting. The band's death toll underscored the randomness of the tragedy for Bangkok's live music scene, with mourners left to reckon with the loss of most of a group's lineup in a single night.
— Compiled from reporting by NPR and the BBC.