Bangkok recycling plant gutted in stubborn fire
A major fire at a Bangkok recycling plant forced the evacuation of residents from an adjacent four-storey apartment building early Wednesday.
No one was injured in the blaze, which took fire-fighters more than three hours to extinguish. Damage, including to several rooms in the apartment building, was estimated at more than Bt30 million.
“We still don’t know how the fire started,” Pol Lt Colonel Adul Thongpetch of Lad Krabang Police Station said.
The plant was cordoned off amid concerns it might collapse.
Security guard Chainarong Utaikan said a worker eating at a food shop in front of the plant noticed the fire at about midnight and alerted him, followed immediately by an explosion.
He saw flames in the section of the plant where scrap paper and plastic were stored.
He called the police and more than 30 fire trucks soon appeared on the scene, though the narrowness of the soi barred access to some of the trucks.
Fire-fighters also had to contend with the scrap piled up, delaying efforts to put out the blaze.