A Sunday night out with friends turned into a nightmare for survivors of Bangkok's deadliest fire in years, as many escaped the blaze only to learn that relatives or friends who had arrived with them were among the dead.
Shortly before the fire broke out around midnight, the Totsakan band was performing on stage.
Lead singer Tik Chaiyana survived only because he had left the stage to use the restroom at the rear of the venue. He said that was the first time that he asked for a break in the middle of a song.
Fighting back tears, he said the fire broke out while he was there. An emergency exit was located near the restroom, allowing him to escape through heavy smoke.
Breeze
He later learned that his fellow band member, Breeze, the band's female singer, had died in the fire.
Tik said that rescue workers carried her body out, they attempted to resuscitate her, but she could not be saved. Breeze was not on the stage at the time.
The band's drummer, Bew, was seriously injured, while another band member, keyboardist Din, was still unaccounted for.
Meanwhile, another survivor, Usa, said she had gone to the venue with four close friends, making a group of five.
She said she and two friends had stepped outside the front of the venue for fresh air and to smoke, while the other two remained seated inside.
She initially heard people shouting that there was a fire but did not believe it until she looked back and saw flames spreading rapidly through the building.
She said customers rushed toward the exits as thick black smoke quickly filled the venue, trapping people deeper inside.
She and other survivors outside the building used metal chairs and other objects to smash the front windows in an attempt to ventilate the building and pull out people suffering from smoke inhalation.
Usa said her car remained in the venue's car park because police had sealed off the area as part of their investigation.
She recalled seeing rescue workers carrying victims from the building before realizing one of them was her friend.
She asked rescuers to perform CPR but was told it was too late.
She said the bodies of her two friends showed no visible burn injuries, leading her to believe they had died from inhaling toxic smoke and gases.
She added that only minutes before the fire, the group had taken a photograph together, which became the last picture they would ever share.
Another female survivor said she had travelled to the venue with her elder sister.
In a video shared after the incident, she said she noticed the smell of gas for about five to ten minutes before the fire broke out.
Her sister went to the restroom while she remained seated at their table. Shortly afterwards, someone shouted that there was a fire, prompting her to run outside.
She said thick smoke quickly filled the venue, making it difficult to breathe, and that she heard an explosion as she fled.
She estimated that there were nearly 100 people inside at the time, as customers had begun arriving for the evening.
Her sister was still in the restroom when the fire broke out. At the time of the interview, she had not been located. The survivor said she had reported her sister missing after officials recovered only her handbag and mobile phone.
Meanwhile, another survivor, Penparsa, said she was sitting in the middle of the crowded venue eating when the fire broke out. She said she saw flames erupt near the front of the stage before they quickly turned into a large cloud of black smoke.
The smoke triggered panic among patrons, many of whom ran in different directions because they did not know where the exits were.
Penparsa said she fell to the ground while trying to escape and was repeatedly stepped over by other people fleeing the fire.
Her younger brother, who was with her, grabbed her shirt and helped her back to her feet, allowing her to escape.
Another survivor said she saw smoke rising from the roof only seconds before flames erupted. She said there was no fire alarm before the blaze spread through the venue.
Meanwhile, relatives of those killed continued to collect the victims' bodies from the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
