Five people, four of whom are rescue volunteers, have been killed in a fire at a large house in western Bangkok.
The three-storey building was on a 50-square-wah plot in the Krisdamahanakorn 31 housing estate on Boromratchonnanee in Thawi-Watthana district. The house later collapsed after the fire raged through it for an hour from 6am on Saturday.
The first responders were firemen from the Bangkok Fire & Rescue Department under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and rescue volunteers from the Poh Teck Tung Foundation.
Heavy machinery could not be used for fear the structure could collapse further and crush those trapped inside.
At 6pm, authorities checked the temperature to find any survivors. They later concluded all must have been dead since the temperature inside the rubble was more than 100C.
Of the dead, four were rescue volunteers — Thanaphob Prapai, 44, Samatcha Nilthong, 48, Attapol Thuamthong, 26, and Suthat Plianklad, 38. The other, Kiat Patterson, 35, was a dweller who had been trapped in a bathroom. Thanaphob's body was the only one that had been extracted from the debris as of Saturday evening.
The house collapses after the fire was put out but victims could not be retrieved as of noon on Saturday.