Blaze guts foreigner’s car in Phuket

A blaze gutted a foreigner’s car in Phuket’s main city district on Tuesday night. Koh Kaew firefighters rushed to the scene on Number 3013 Road to find the car engulfed in flames.

It took the firefighters about 10 minutes to bring the blaze under control. The car was destroyed, but luckily the driver escaped uninjured.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated, The Phuket Express reported.

This news comes just a week after another car in Phuket burst into flames. The car’s owner, a Swedish man, barely escaped after pulling over the car when he saw smoke. The 57 year old man had been driving around without any sign of a problem until he saw smoke under the hood.

He had been heading to the Rawai Beach area when black smoke started spilling out from under the hood. He pulled the car over into a nearby parking lot to stop the vehicle as the engine bay smoked. He pulled into a post office lot and quickly climbed out of his car. The smoke quickly became fire, the car was engulfed in flames. The driver had no idea what had caused the fire.

In August, another similar incident occurred in Phuket’s town of Chalong. A car suddenly caught fire near the junction of Soi Ta-ied and Chao Fa East Road. Luckily, firefighters were able to get the fire under control in only four minutes, and no injuries were reported. It was unknown what had caused the fire.

Back in June, yet another similar incident occurred. A motorbike driving down Patong Hill on Phuket’s west coast was engulfed in flames. Not only did the driver survive, but he was left without any injuries.

The 54 year old man told reporters he had been driving down the hill when other motorbike drivers behind him shouted that his motorbike caught fire from behind. The man said he stopped the motorbike and jumped away from the flames. It was believed that the bike caught fire from a battery that was recently fully charged, and put under the motorbike seat.