Lightning strikes set a single-storey building on fire at Si Kranuan Phitthayakhom School in Khon Kaen’s Kranuan district during a fierce storm on Monday evening.
The fire caused more than 10 million baht in damage, according to Pol Lt Col Pramot Charirong, chief investigator at Kranuan district police station. Students at the school are still on term holiday.
The fire at the school was reported about 5.30pm on Monday.
The burned-out building was used to store documents, computers and other teaching materials. Firefighters took close to an hour to contain the fierce blaze, said the police official.
A teacher on duty by at the time of the fire told police investigators the building was hit three times in quick succession by lighting just before the fire erupted, said Pol Col Wisut Khrengching, chief of Kranuan district police station.
Normally teachers take turns staying at the school at night and during school holidays, as part of a security surveillance programme.
The unnamed teacher told investigators that no one dared enter the building to fight the fierce blaze, and they were forced to wait until firefighters arrived, said Pol Col Wisut.
Forensic police were collecting evidence to determine if the story of repeated lightning strikes, as told by witnesses, caused the fire, or if it was something else, he said.
Tropical storms were reported in several areas of the country on Monday evening.
In Khok Si Suphan district of Sakon Nakhon, stormwinds toppled large trees that fell across power lines and brought down nine power poles, causing a blackout that lasted several hours, Suriyon Phengtham, head of the maintenance unit of the Provincial Electricity Authority’s Sakon Nakhon office, said.
