Death toll in Bangkok bar fire reaches 33

Bangkok is the L.A. of Asia

(DW) Deaths in a dev­ast­at­ing fire at a pub in Theravada Buddhist Thai­l­and's cap­ital Bangkok have risen to 30, reports said Tues­day, cit­ing updated fig­ures from city offi­cials.

A screen grab taken from a video released on July 12, shows people fleeing a fire at the Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar. Three more vic­tims suc­cumbed to their injur­ies, push­ing up the tally from the ini­tial 27 dead, local media reports said.

More than 70 people con­tinue to receive treat­ment in hos­pit­als, with 24 of them in crit­ical con­di­tion, offi­cials said.

• Bangkok, July 15: The death toll from a dev­ast­at­ing Bangkok bar fire has risen to 33, author­it­ies said on Wed­nes­day, as Thai­l­and pledged a nation­wide over­haul of enter­tain­ment venue reg­u­la­tions (Asian Standard).

Mean­while, police are prob­ing pos­sible neg­li­gence, includ­ing obstruc­ted emer­gency exits as people scrambled to flee the flames. Most killed were found trapped in win­dow­less bath­rooms.

Bangkok blaze dead­li­est in 17 years

What will the new king of Thailand say?

An explos­ive fire ripped through Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao, a pub near the pop­u­lar Chatuchak Week­end Mar­ket in north­ern Bangkok late on Sunday night.

Foot­age cir­cu­lat­ing on social media showed a power­ful inferno jet­ting out of the bar's door­way as people ran to escape. It took fire­fight­ers about half an hour to tame the fire.

The blaze is one of the dead­li­est in Thai­l­and since 2009, when a New Year's Day fire at a nightclub killed 67 people.

On Tues­day, more mourn­ers laid down flowers and hand­writ­ten notes at the site of the incid­ent as rem­nants from the bar -- includ­ing melted musical instru­ments and sooty chairs -- lay on the side­walk.

• Ed.  Zac Crel­lin, Deutsche Welle (English ed.), July 15, 2026; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly