SAMUT PRAKAN: Firefighters finally extinguished the blaze at the Summit Footwear factory in Bang Phli district on Wednesday night after a 27-hour battle, but the local frontage road remains closed for public safety.
Bang Phli district chief Somsak Kaewbangna, firefighters and volunteers announced the fire was completely extinguished at 8.40pm on Wednesday, about 27 hours after it started at the shoe factory on the outbound side of the Theparat (Bang Na-Trat) Highway near the 15-kilometre marker on Tuesday evening.
The whole six-story building was burned out, the walls were left cracked, and parts of the structure were slowly collapsing.
Mr Somsak said engineers would examine the structure before a final decision was made on what steps to take next. Meanwhile, the frontage road of the Theparat Highway outside the destroyed factory would remain closed for public safety, he said.
Police would investigate the cause of the fire. The building was insured, the district chief said.
Firefighter Thanabodi Wongsuthee recalled the huge effort put in to fighting the blaze. He said he was among the firefighters who risked their lives inside the building, scrambling through burning rubble as walls and debris collapsed around them.
Firefighters moved along beams and crawled under collapsed rafters to get their hoses as close as possible to the heart of the fire, until finally they completed the task on Wednesday night, he said.
Amazingly, there were no injuries reported, either among fire crews or the factory employees, who fled through fire exits.
