A devastating fire broke out at the Chatuchak Pet Market in Bangkok early Tuesday morning, destroying 118 shops and killing an estimated 1,000 pets. The total financial losses are estimated to be in the millions of baht.
Firefighters rushed to the scene along with over 10 fire trucks and volunteers from the Poh Teck Tung Foundation after a report of the fire at about 4 a.m.
The pet zone called the Srisomrat Market is a hub for pet shops and ornamental fish, divided into 118 stalls with mezzanine storage and caretaker quarters.
The fire rapidly spread, engulfing the entire area. Firefighters took more than an hour to control the blaze.
A shop employee said that she was sleeping on the mezzanine of the shop when she heard noises from various pets and saw the area filled with smoke, making it hard to breathe. She escaped by jumping out of a window. The shop had rare birds, including cockatoos worth 30,000 baht each.
Mr. Sakda Banpajunjinda, a 54-year-old owner of TK Farm shop, said his shop is located across from where the fire occurred. He sells various imported exotic animals, worth ten million baht (approximately $272,000 USD) in total. Luckily, his shop was not affected by the fire.
The fire is initially believed to start at Angel Bird Shop, now selling small breed dogs such as Poodles, Shih Tzus, and Pomeranians. The owner kept the dogs without employees and left fans on at night, suggesting an electrical short circuit as the cause.
The fire resulted in an estimated 1,000 animal deaths, including ornamental fish, cats, dogs, and exotic animals like swans, birds, and monkeys, valued from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of baht, with total damages likely in the millions. Some shops had employees sleeping on the mezzanines but there are no reported injuries.
The Chatuchak District Office has set up a registration table for shop owners to record their losses, while forensic officers are investigating the cause of the fire. (TNA)
