As the flames roared through the building at about 2am, local residents and foreign workers helped to remove flammable items from close by and from neighbouring stores.
Vichit police blocked the road off and power to the area was cut. Electrical workers turn off the source off electricity in the area.At 2am, fire rescue workers fromVichit Municipality and Phuket city helped to control
A Super Cheap worker who was on duty said, “The fire started near the counter area. No one knows how or why. The fire then spread to the ceiling and display shelves. We tried to put it out but it was out of hand so we called for help.”
Fire fighters spend two hours trying to control the blaze and stopping it spreading to an aquarium shop and a house on either side of the Super Cheap. Though they managed to stop the flames spreading, the Super Cheap itself was destroyed, along with a Siam Commercial Bank ATM at the front of the store.
No one was injured.
This was not the first fire alert at the store. In November last year a power cable fell in front of the shop, starting a fire that trashed two motorcycles.
This morning’s fire is the second occasion on which a Super Cheap store has been destroyed by fire. In October 2013 the rambling timber-and-tin-roof main store was totally destroyed in a huge fire and had to be completely rebuilt. It reopened a year ago.