Speeding pickup crashes into Chaiyaphum shop, sparks fire
About 10 shoppers escaped injury when a speeding pickup truck with an alleged drunk at the wheel crashed into a Chaiyaphum grocery store, sparking a fire that burned the building to the ground.
Police were unsure whether the incident in the village of Nong Daeng Yai in Khon Sawan district occurred just before or just after midnight Sunday.
Pol Capt Urai Anthaburi, deputy inspector at Chong Sam Mor station, said no one was injured. The pickup driver and everyone in the store got out of the building before it became engulfed in flames.
Store owner Prathita Butrchan, 40, said she was just about to close up for the night and there were about 10 customers still inside.
She heard the roar of an engine just before the pickup crashed into the store, coming to a halt against a freezer.
Seeing sparks from the impact and suspecting a short circuit, she ran upstairs to hit the circuit breaker, but on returning to the ground floor saw that a fire had already started.
Prathita summoned neighbours to help her push her own pickup and the crashed vehicle out of the shop before the fire spread.
The blaze ignited several cylinders of cooking gas in the shop.
Neither the neighbours nor fire-fighters could contain the blaze, which burned for two hours, destroying the premises.
Prathita estimated the loss at more than Bt1 million. She said she had more than Bt50,000 in cash inside, which also went up in smoke.
Pol Lt Col Pirapong Banchobsri, head of the police station, said Nikorn Im-arom, 42, was arrested for drunk driving after a breathalyser test found his blood-alcohol level was well above the legal limit.