Pong Sirithup, Chief of the Department Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) division at Phuket City Municipality, was notified of the fire at 7pm.
He soon arrived at the scene, Wat Kosit Wiharn on Thepkrasattri Rd on the north side of Phuket Town, with Capt Ronnaphum Permpoon of the Phuket City Police together with firefighters and rescue workers.
In the car park was the Volvo car with flames coming out from the engine bay.
The firefighters began to douse the flames and took 20 minutes to put out the fire.
The owner of the car (name not reported) told police that he had parked in the car park to attend the funeral of a friend’s mother.
“People started shouting out that a car was on fire, so I came running out and saw it was my car. Flames were coming out from under the bonnet and there was a lot of smoke,” the owner said.
From their initial investigation, police believe a short circuit in the car engine started the fire.
However, police have asked forensic investigators to confirm the what caused the fire.
Police gave no estimate of the cost of the damage caused by the fire.