WATCH: At Least 28 Dead After Fire Tears Through Bangkok Bar — Most Victims Found Trapped in the Bathroom With No Way Out

BANGKOK, THAILAND — Barely three weeks after Venezuela was struck by its strongest earthquakes in over a century, killing dozens and leaving city blocks in ruins, another devastating mass casualty event is making international headlines. This time, the tragedy did not come from the ground — it came from the inside of a packed bar in Thailand's capital city on a Sunday night, and for the 28 people who did not make it out, safety was just a few steps away. They simply could not get there in time.

The Fire Moved Faster Than Anyone Could React

It was late Sunday night at Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao, a popular bar and music venue on Lat Phrao Road in Bangkok's Chatuchak district. The place was full — customers drinking, a live musician performing on the stage, people doing what they do on a normal weekend night at a bar they know.

Then the fire started near the stage.

It spread in seconds. The power went out immediately, plunging the entire room into darkness. Thick smoke filled the space almost instantly. Video footage posted online shows panicked customers screaming as they rushed toward the front door — some of them already on fire — as flames engulfed the entrance behind them.

A fire investigator who spoke to the BBC explained what the dramatic footage actually shows. "As the fire grows, a layer of extremely hot gases and smoke forms beneath the ceiling. Once an opening such as a doorway becomes available, that hot gas layer vents out of the building," said Vithyaa Thavapalan, managing director and forensic fire investigator at Forensic Origin and Cause Investigations. "While it appears intense, this can be normal behavior in a well-developed compartment fire."

For the people inside, knowing that did not help.

Most of the Dead Ran to the Bathroom

When firefighters finally entered the building, what they found inside told the story of how the night ended for most of the victims. The majority of those who died had run to the bathroom when the lights went out and the smoke closed in around them. They could not find a way back out.

National police chief Kitrat Panphet confirmed the grim finding. "Most of the people who died were found in the toilets," he said. "When the fire broke out, they panicked. There were no lights."

There are also unconfirmed reports that people were found unconscious near the building's emergency exit — raising the possibility that the exit may have been blocked or obstructed in some way. Authorities said this can only be confirmed through further forensic investigation.

Suriyachai Rawiwan, director of Bangkok's disaster mitigation department, said the preliminary findings indicate the majority of victims died from smoke inhalation rather than from the fire itself.

One Man Could Not Reach His Brother

Kaew-udon Poungppany, 24, from Laos, was at the bar when the fire broke out. His younger brother was still inside. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to push his way back through the front entrance.

"I grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at the door," he told journalists, fighting back tears. "But I couldn't go any further. I heard people screaming."

His brother did not survive.

One woman outside the bar did survive — by pure chance. Usa Tadsree, 41, had stepped outside for a cigarette just seconds before the fire started. That decision saved her life.

"There was a boom — a very fast boom," she told Reuters. "There was no way to get out at all."

Minutes later, rescuers carried the body of a friend she had been drinking with inside just a short while before. "I lost my mind," Usa said. "It looked like she was asleep."

A motorcyclist who happened to be passing, Surin Jaiharn, stopped and used pieces of clothing to beat out the flames on the bodies of about five people who made it to the street. A separate driver who first spotted the fire called it in to the fire department before getting out of his car, finding shattered windows, and helping two more people climb out to safety.

"I feel depressed," Jaiharn told AFP. "I saw many deaths and I do not know the fate of the people I helped."

What Caused It — and What Made It Worse

Firefighters arrived just after midnight — alerted by a driver who saw the fire from the road — and brought the blaze under control in about 30 minutes. The total count: 28 dead, 71 injured. Of those injured, 25 are in critical condition, 14 are moderately injured, and 32 have minor injuries. The owner of the bar is among those currently receiving treatment in intensive care.

Preliminary findings from Bangkok's disaster mitigation department point to an electrical short circuit in one of the bar's air conditioners as the likely cause of the fire. No official determination has been made yet, and authorities have promised a thorough investigation.

Bangkok governor Chatchart Sittipunt also flagged the bar's interior as a significant factor. Flammable decorations on the ceiling of the venue, he said, likely played a major role in how fast the fire spread through the building after it ignited.

The Chatuchak district office announced Monday that the building would be closed for 30 days. The Thai government said families of those who died would receive 29,300 baht — approximately $880 — in compensation, while those being treated in hospital would receive 4,000 baht, approximately $120.

A Country That Has Seen This Before

Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul visited the scene early Monday morning. A musician who had been performing on stage when the fire broke out told him what those first seconds were like: "There was blasting and everybody tried to flee from the smoke and flames."

The tragedy lands with a familiar and painful weight in Thailand. In 2022, a fire at a bar south of Bangkok killed 22 people. On New Year's Day in 2009, a nightclub fire in Bangkok's capital killed 66 people and injured more than 200 others who were ringing in the new year. Fire safety and electrical safety standards in Thailand have long been criticized as poorly enforced, despite official promises to improve them following each previous tragedy.

At Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao on Sunday night, 28 people came for the music and the company of friends. When the lights went out and the smoke came in, most of them looked for the nearest door they could find in the dark. For too many of them, it was not enough.

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