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Police ask for one week to conclude fire incident in Yaowarat community

Bangkok, Forensic officers went to the Trok Pho community on Yaowarat Road again to investigate a large fire that occurred last Saturday. They had already gone to the area yesterday but had to withdraw due to the dangerous conditions in the area. Pol. Maj. Gen. Watee Aswutmangkur, Commander of the Central Forensic Science Division, Office of Forensic Science, Police, revealed that yesterday, forensic officers went to inspect the fire scene in the Trok Pho community, Yaowarat Road, and found obstacles such as the structure of the building, especially the wooden house, still collapsing, which was dangerous for officers. Therefore, they withdrew their forces and were still unable to inspect the area believed to be the source of the fire. Therefore, since we still cannot go in to survey the area where the fire started, we still cannot conclude what caused the fire. Although there are now several assumptions, along with the statements of the villagers given to the investigators and images from the high-angle dr one, it is still not enough to be able to make a definite conclusion. We must go to the point where the fire started first. Therefore, at this time, we still cannot conclude what caused the fire. In this regard, we have coordinated with the local disaster prevention and mitigation to quickly clean up and survey the debris of various buildings to allow forensic officers to reach the source of the fire. Today, we will coordinate with the disaster prevention and mitigation and forensic officers to go to the area again. We also revealed that within this week, we will definitely have an answer as to what caused the fire in the Trok Pho community in Yaowarat. Ms. Amporn, 41 years old, one of the victims who was waiting at the entrance of the alley hoping to be able to go in and collect her belongings from her damaged house, was interviewed and said that she has two houses in the community. One is a two-story wooden house on Song Wat Road and the other is behind Pho Place, a hotel on the other corner of the commun ity. On the night of the incident, I was eating and socializing with friends at a house behind Pho Place. It turned out that I saw red flames rising from inside the community and heard a loud noise like firecrackers. So I intended to run into the wooden house to collect my belongings, but I couldn't make it in time because the flames were raging very fiercely. So I could only run to save myself and escape from the community exit on the other side. Although I couldn't get to the house in time to collect my belongings, luckily my uncle, who lives in the wooden house, was able to get out in time. Ms. Amporn said with tears that she was lucky to have another house that she could live in, but she felt sorry for many younger people whose houses were destroyed by the flames and had to move to other places. Right now, what she was worried about was some of the belongings that were still in the house. At least she was lucky that she saw from above that the wooden house was only damaged on the second floor, but the f irst floor was fine. In addition, her pet, a cat, was found safe, but it was dirty and still running around looking for food in the wooden house. Ms. Amporn said that she has lived here for many years and has never seen any signs of a fire. She lives there on a monthly rental basis. In the past, she has never heard the owner of the house talk about expropriating the house to use the land for other commercial purposes. Therefore, she thinks it is impossible that the incident is a case of creating a situation to use the land for commercial purposes or to burn and evict the people. As for the origin of the fire, I don't know for sure where the fire started, but from what I know, it's unlikely to be the dessert shop that was reported as the origin of the fire. Also, before the incident, I didn't hear any noise like an explosion or a gas tank going off. I only heard a noise like firecrackers and some locals said they heard a sound like thunder. Source: Thai News Agency