PUBLISHED : 30 Jul 2023 at 13:49
NARATHIWAT: The death toll from the fireworks explosion at a warehouse in Sungai Kolok district on Saturday is now 12, with 121 injured and 292 houses damaged or totally destroyed, the province’s public relations office announced on its Facebook page on Sunday.
Of the 12 deaths, seven bodies had been taken by relatives for religious rites while the five others were still at Sungai Kolok Hospital, three of them identified and two unidentified.
Of the 121 injured, 111 had returned home. Ten were admitted to Sungai Kolok Hospital for treatment of injuries – with only one in a serious condition.
Sanan Pong-aksorn, the Narathiwat governor, examined the damage from the explosion which occurred at about 3pm on Saturday at the warehouse at Ban Muno, the Moo 1 village in tambon Muno.
He said the place was initally opened as a grocery shop. The owner then obtained permission to expand it to become a warehouse to store merchandise. The godown was believed to have been used to store fireworks without permission.
The warehouse owner had been identified and summoned to report to police to testify, Mr Sanan said.
The governor said the incident occurred while welding was taking place at Weerawat Panit shop to make shelves. The explosion was believed to have been caused by sparks from the welding work.
The huge blast damaged 292 houses nearby, totally destroying 50 of them.
Most of the residents nearby were unaware fireworks had been stored in the godown. The building doors had been closed most of the time, except when two trucks occasionally arrived to unload merchandise.
Wichitchat Udomlarpcharoenkit, a rescue leader from a charity foundation in Sungai Kolok, said when he led about 40 rescuers to the scene they saw only houses and shops ablaze with debris scattered over a wide area. Many vehicles had their tyres flattened by broken objects. Heavy equipment was used to break open the damaged houses to bring out the killed and injured, with help from soldiers and defence volunteers.