Police have not ruled out arson as a possible cause of a fire that destroyed several bookshops in Chatuchak Weekend Market on Wednesday night.
The book-burning blaze is believed to have started in stall number 40, destroying it along with stalls 34, 35 and 41 covering an area of about 25 square meters near gate number 32, the Bangkok Post reported.
Police Col Pheeraphong Wongsaman said that four witnesses to the fire saw no signs of arsonists at the scene, but only smoke billowing from the stalls, The Nation reported.
Although he did not rule out arson, Col Pheeraphong said that authorities would rather “focus our investigation on it as an accident.”
Acting deputy Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) chief Methee Kusolsarng said that after an initial investigation, it appears the fire may have been caused by an electrical short circuit as areas near electrical outlets were badly damaged.
However, there has been speculation that the blaze may have been the result of a dispute arising from theJan. 2 handover of management of the famed market from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to State Railway of Thailand (SRT), which owns the land.
Commander of MPB Division 2, Pol Maj Gen Samroeng Suwanpong, said that police would investigate whether the fire was linked to change of management of the market.
Maj Gen Samroeng also ordered investigators to look into whether “influential people” allegedly extorting money from vendors were involved, the Post reported.
The SRT, which owns the land that the market occupies, took over management from the BMA on January 2 after the Administration refused to pay new rates for a lease extension. The lease expired on Jan. 1.
A daughter of a woman who rents one of the stalls told The Nation that she did not believe the fire could have been an accident. She said that the stalls in Zone 24 – where the blaze occurred – between sois 4 and 5 used a communal circuit breaker, which would have shut off the electricity if a short circuit occurred.
Police are continuing their investigation into the blaze.
