Floods hit North, fire in Mae Sai
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A fire broke out in a commercial building in Nai Boonyeun fresh market in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district amid rainfall and floods yesterday.
The fire, which caused no injuries, is believed to have stemmed from candles and joss sticks left unattended at a shrine on the second floor. It took two fire engines about half an hour to control the flames and the damages were estimated as Bt500,000.
Meanwhile, Mae Sai residents rushed to fill up sandbags to create flood barriers for their homes and shops as the overflowing Sai River flooded the Sai Lom Joy Market. The Mae Sai-Tachileik Bridge was also close to being flooded, an informed source said yesterday.
Mae Sai district chief Somchai Rungsakhon and mayor Salaiyon Srisamut visited the site yesterday.
Meanwhile, in Mae Hon Son’s Sop Mei district, the sub-districts of Mae Suad and Mae Sam Lab were cut from the outside world due to heavy rainfall, high floods and a 200-metre-long landslide. In response, officials brought heavy machinery to help clear the roads, provincial disaster prevention and mitigation official Phermwittaya Kanthasong said yesterday.
Separately, Princess Pa Foundation vice president Apai Chandanachulaka presented relief bags to over 400 flood-affected residents at Ban Mae Lui of Mae Suad sub-district, as well as some 140 from nearby villages on behalf of HRH Princess Somsavali.
In the Northeast, the Mekong River continued to rise closer to the critical point, prompting related agencies at Nakhon Phanom province to call a meeting yesterday to seek measures to tackle possible flooding. About 15,000 rai of farmland in Sri Songkhram and Oon river basin areas were already flooded, it was reported yesterday.
