Phuket City Police responded to a call where it was reported a car was on fire in front of a townhouse on the northbound side Thepkassattri Rd in Rassada.
Police arrived at the scene with Kusoldharm rescue workers to find local residents and drivers trying to extinguish the burning vehicle. However, strong winds were hampering their efforts.
Officials were afraid that car would explode so the road had to be blocked off and the crowd moved away from close vicinity of the raging fire whilst police waited for firefighters to reach the scene.
It took firefighters 30 minutes to arrive, however, they extinguished the fire in 20 minutes.
The burnt out Honda belonged to 49-year-old Chayyai Na Nakorn who told police that his wife had parked the car in front of a neighbour’s property at around 6pm the previous evening (Nov 5) and that he did not know how he fire started.
“Our neighbour alerted us at 1:05am that the car was on fire and we tried to put it out. Witnesses told us they saw the fire coming from the left-front wheel and that it escalated quickly to the entire car,” Mr Chayyai told police.
Capt Udom said, “Since witnesses said the fire started from the front tyre we believe that either an electrical shortage or arsonist/s caused the fire. We will investigate into these two possibilities.”