Officials said on Thursday that a large fire on an industrial park in eastern Thailand that housed a gas storage facility had claimed one life and forced hundreds more to flee.
Authorities in Rayong province say that the fire at a gas storage tank at the Maptaphut Industrial Port began at approximately 10:35 a.m. local time (03:35 a.m. GMT).
The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) said in a statement that four persons were injured in the fire, and one of them later passed away in the hospital from their wounds.
Video from the storage tank was released by the local media, displaying thick clouds of black smoke shooting out of it and murky fumes hanging over the industrial park as a result of the blazing flames.
Attaya Attaya Nual-Uthai, head of Rayong province’s disaster prevention and mitigation office, said “about 200 people had been evacuated from the area” without providing more detail.
IEAT said it was not clear what had started the conflagration.
In addition to eight fire engines and four water trucks, rescue vehicles from neighboring provinces were brought in to assist by pumping seawater into the fire, according to IEAT.
Recent reports of fires in Thailand have noticeably increased, and this coincides with a severe heatwave that is affecting South and Southeast Asia.
Nonetheless, industrial mishaps are not unusual in the monarchy due to the infamously loose safety regulations.
A massive cleanup effort was necessitated by thousands of liters of crude oil that washed ashore following an undersea pipeline breach in Rayong in 2022 that released tons of crude oil into the sea.
