The cluster of barracks that caught fire sat behind the BBQ House and adjacent massage parlor on Beach Road across from the Pacific Islands Club.
The fire started sometime around 8 a.m., and according to the Thai residents interviewed by Variety, the blaze was sparked by a cooking accident.
Fortunately no injuries were reported from either the fire or the thick, black smoke that billowed upward during the fire’s burn-time of approximately 20 minutes.
Some three hours later, another fire broke out, this time at a defunct night club in Chalan Piao. No one was also hurt in that incident.
In San Antonio, first responders evacuated the neighbors while the American Red Cross quickly set up a tent at PIC to assist emergency responders and the fire victims.
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Mafnas executed a very well coordinated response just 40-feet from the blaze on Beach Road to control and contain the fire as well as maintain public safety.
Once the blaze had burned itself out, Fire Chief Thomas Manglona assumed command to begin the clean-up and investigation portions of the operation.
Although the fire victims were physically unharmed, their faces told a different story as they huddled in stunned silence on the grass — some crying, some shaking — as the realization sunk in that the majority of their possessions and homes were now only memories and ashes.
The fire started at a mini-store owned by Santiago Eleyda and immediately spread to adjacent barracks.
Eleyda, who was at work when the fire broke out, said his girlfriend Wilae Humchia was left at the house and had no idea how the fire started.
At least eight families were renting rooms adjacent to the store, said Antonio Austria, who lost all their belongings to the fire.
Casamiro Arana, a nonresident worker on island for 26 years now, said he, too, lost all his belongings including some of his livestock, chicken, doves, dogs, a cat and a rabbit.
Arana was working at the Afetnas Plaza when the fire broke out.
He said when he arrived his house was already burned down.
“I also lost some money and jewelry and all my documents for CW1 application,” he said.
In Chalan Piao, authorities tried to locate two or three homeless individuals who had been occupying the abandoned barracks behind the former Tokyo Tower night club.
Witnesses said a man was seen at the one-story building hours before the fire broke.
Witnesses said two men and one woman had been staying in the abandoned barracks.
A firefighter said the kitchen area was severely damaged.
The fire was put under control at about 11:54 a.m. In a media conference, Mafnas urged members of the community to be on the lookout for “suspicious movements” in their neighborhoods.
It is unusual to have back to back fire incidents in one part of the island, he added.
