Fire guts Miccell factory, damage put at B100m

Fire guts Miccell factory, damage put at B100m

A building at the Miccell Co heat-shielding factory in Samut Prakan's Phra Pradaeng district is engulfed in flames and destroyed early on Tuesday morning. No injuries were reported. (Photos by JS100)
A building at the Miccell Co heat-shielding factory in Samut Prakan's Phra Pradaeng district is engulfed in flames and destroyed early on Tuesday morning. No injuries were reported. (Photos by JS100)

SAMUT PRAKAN: A major fire destroyed a large building at a factory producing insulation sheeting in Phra Pradaeng district in the early hours of Tuesday, along with about 20 vehicles parked nearby. No injuries were reported.

The blaze at the Miccell Co factory in tambon Bang Ya Phraek was reported to police about 12.30am, Pol Capt Pongsakorn Saraschana said.

Emergency teams, including about 30 fire trucks, rushed to the scene.

The two-storey building, on 3 rai of land, was already engulfed when they arrived, and intermittent explosions could be heard, he said.

The explosions were dozens of cylinders of LPG used by workers to heat up styrofoam sheets used in producing sheets of heat-shielding, he said.

It took firefighters more than two hours to bring the blaze under control. By then the building was gutted and about 20 vehicles parked nearby were also burned.

Total damage was estimated at more than 100 million baht, Pol Capt Pongsakorn said.

Somporn Sarapim, 63, a security guard at the factory, said he was on his rounds in the second building in the factory compound when he heard a double explosion from the direction of the first building.

He hurried to see what was happening and saw about seven workers running for their lives from flames shooting high in the air from the middle of the first building. The fire was fanned by a wind and raced through the building then spread rapidly to the nearby areas.

Woranat Nurod, chief of the Phra Pradaeng district office, said the alleys leading to the factory were rather narrow, which made it difficult for fire engines to get to the scene.

Police were investigating the cause of the fire, he said.

Photos from JS100 traffic radio:

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