Devastating fire in downtown Chiang Rai - elderly woman dead, media speculates on candle theory

Picture: Thai Rath

Thai Rath reported on a devastating fire in a row of shophouses on the Chiang Rai to Mae Sai road near the Ban Den intersection in Muang district. 

Flames reached 20 meters high as the fire spread with lightning speed.

The fire started around 9 pm and is believed to have originated in a terrace property that is used as a rubber mattress factory. The fire spread to other properties.

Picture: Thai Rath

The same media further reported around 2.50 this morning that firemen from many districts had brought the blaze under control by 11.50 pm but there continued to be thick smoke billowing.

In total six shop houses and a vehicle were damaged and there was one fatality, an elderly woman.

Picture: Thai Rath

The media said the row of properties was built by Num See Seng leasing and rented out.

The source of the fire was a property with a rubber mattress factory out back and a showroom for that product and other furniture on the ground floor.

They speculated without giving evidence that a lit candle had fallen from the second floor onto mattresses that fueled the fire and made it spread quickly, reported Thai Rath.

Dead on the second floor and severely burned was Kapkaew, 65, the mother of the factory owner, who lived there.

She apparently was unable to get out in time and died face down on her bed with half her body burned by the fire.