30 shops damaged in fire near Ramkhamhaeng Airport Link station
Firefighters quickly contain the shophouse blaze and station reopens for service a few hours later
The Ramkhamhaeng station of the Airport Rail Link was temporarily closed on Monday morning after a roadside shophouse some 4 metres away caught fire.
Though the fire damaged some 30 shops, nobody was injured. Firefighters, backed by some 10 fire engines, rushed to the scene and had the blaze under control in half an hour. The fire had broken out in a 3-storey shophouse on Ramkhamhaeng Road’s Nasa Street at about 4.30am.
The shophouse was just 4m away from the Ramkhamhaeng station’s escalator. Nipaporn Phuwong, 25, a staff of a 24-hour convenience store nearby smelled fumes at around 4.30am and after checking inside her shop, she stepped out to find smoke billowing from the ground floor of the shophouse nearby.
She said she tried to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher but failed, and decided to call fire police.
Meanwhile, Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt, who was out for a jog in Yaowarat, arrived at the scene at about 5.30am and instructed city officials to monitor the safety of Airport Rail Link passengers.
The governor said the fire only damaged the ground floor of some shops, adding that though the Ramkhamhaeng station was closed temporarily, the trains were running uninterrupted. Passengers were allowed to enter or exit via nearby stations like Makkasan and Hua Mark.
The station was reopened at about 8.30am though the use of the escalator was suspended.
