A fire at a boutique hotel in Bangkok’s Silom business district on Tuesday morning sent panicked foreign guests fleeing for their safety, damaging one room but causing no casualties.
The blaze at the iCheck Inn Silom on Soi Silom 28 off Silom Road in Bang Rak district began about 5.45am on Tuesday, police said.
Fire trucks and crews rushed to the scene found thick smoke coming from a room on the second floor of the four-story hotel, built in five modified commercial buildings. Foreign guests were running from the building.
Fire fighters took about 20 minutes to bring the blaze under control. The room was badly damaged. There were no reports of injury or death.
A hotel public relations staffer said she was working on the first floor when the fire alarm rang out. She rushed to the second floor and saw a room booked by Arab guests was on fire with smoke flowing into the corridor.
She opened the door to help the guests, but there was no one inside. The key card for the room was by the door. She then knocked at the doors of other rooms, asking guests to leave, before alerting police.
Police believe the fire might have been caused by a short circuit or possibly an unextinguished cigarette butt left in the room. They were investigating to establish the actual cause.