On a busy Monday night at Bangkok’s Rong Beer Na Lat Phrao bar, members of popular Thai indie group Thotsakan took the stage to play for a packed house of fans. What was supposed to be a routine, joyful performance quickly turned into one of Thailand’s deadliest entertainment venue disasters in recent memory, leaving 33 people dead and 15 others fighting for their lives with critical injuries. Survivors of the blaze recount chaotic, terrifying escapes and grapple with overwhelming grief, while the tragedy has sparked urgent new calls for stricter fire safety enforcement across the country’s nightlife spots.
Athipat Wichan, Thotsakan’s 32-year-old founder and band leader, was off-stage working on new song ideas when the fire broke out. Within seconds, ferocious flames swallowed the stage, cut all power to the venue, and turned a fun night out into a fight for survival. In an interview with BBC Thai just one day after the blaze, Athipat described stumbling through the dark to reach the exit, only to be met with a wall of fire that blocked his path. “I almost didn’t make it out in time,” he said, still reeling from the shock.
For Thotsakan, the tragedy has been unthinkably devastating. Four of the 11 band members who were at the venue that night perished in the inferno: female vocalist Nahathai Satjalert, who was also Athipat’s girlfriend, male vocalist Thitiwat Kaewkanha, keyboardist Pruttipong Phutmon, and new drummer Nathaphat Thammanitha, who had only joined the band a month prior. Pruttipong, the keyboardist, had even been planning to leave the group soon, while Thitiwat had been talking about celebrating Athipat’s birthday just days later. “Instead of celebrating my birthday, we ended up arranging a funeral,” Athipat said, speaking from Nahathai’s funeral where Buddhist monks chanted in the background and mourners filled the hall, overwhelmed by grief.
Athipat, who suffered injuries to his head and arms in the blaze, carries a heavy weight of regret. He had brought Nahathai into the band, and the pair had dreamed of growing old together. “I had imagined us being together until we’re old, her scolding me until we’re old, but now I can’t hear her voice any more,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let you be here… I want to apologise and I want to say that I love her very much and will continue to love her every day.” He is also devastated by the loss of his three bandmates, each of whom brought unique energy and talent to the group he founded 12 years earlier.
Athipat launched Thotsakan when he was just 20 years old, drawing inspiration from his love of Thai literature to name the band after the iconic primary antagonist from the Ramakien, Thailand’s national epic. After five years of performing, he stepped back to join another group, but that stint only lasted a few months before he decided to revive Thotsakan for a second iteration with a new roster of musicians. Most of the members playing at the bar the night of the fire were part of this new phase of the band, which had become a beloved staple of Bangkok’s independent music scene.
Guitarist Chanate Trasing, another survivor of the blaze, described the moment the fire started, saying he initially mistook the smoke building on stage for dry ice, a common stage effect. But he quickly realized something was wrong when the smoke began swirling rapidly instead of dispersing slowly like dry ice. He smelled burning plastic that stung his nose, dropped his guitar immediately, and jumped off the stage to run for safety. He recalled seeing Pruttipong disoriented in the chaos, looking back and forth unsure of which way to go. “When I started running, I thought he would chase after me. It was only when I got out that I realised he didn’t,” Chanate said, speaking just after collecting Nathaphat’s body from the city mortuary. The last image he carries from that night, before chaos broke out, is the warm sight of “the smiles of the bar-goers enjoying our music.”
The deadly fire has reignited longstanding debates about fire safety compliance and regulation enforcement at entertainment venues across Thailand. Survivors have reported that multiple exit doors were locked on the night of the blaze, and there was a clear lack of clear emergency exit signage throughout the venue. Thai authorities have launched an investigation into whether criminal negligence on the part of the venue owners contributed to the high death toll, but many critics are also calling out government regulatory agencies for failing to enforce existing fire safety rules consistently.
Athipat echoed these widespread concerns, saying the tragedy has forever changed what it feels like to step on stage for performers. “I wish venues had higher safety standards so when we perform, we can enjoy ourselves like before without having to worry,” he said. “These days, I believe that if I or anyone from my band goes on stage, they’ll think about [the fire] and feel alarmed and uncomfortable.”
Looking forward, the remaining members of Thotsakan plan to take time to grieve their enormous loss before charting a path forward. Athipat says the band will eventually regain its footing and return to making music, telling fans to hold on for what comes next. For Chanate, however, the decision to continue performing is not so clear. With a young toddler and a family to support, he says he has to reconsider his commitment to a career in live music, even though he loves the work deeply enough to have quit a stable office job to pursue it. “I believe everyone has fears,” he said.
While the trauma of that deadly night will stay with all the survivors for the rest of their lives, many are clinging to the small, warm memory of what came before the fire: a room full of fans smiling, lost in the sound of the music the band loved creating.