SAMUT PRAKAN: A container lorry carrying more than 100 natural gas cylinders caught fire and exploded after a tyre burst under the elevated Bang Na-Bang Pakong expressway on Monday night.
The conflagration occurred on the inbound side at the 15th kilometre marker of Theparat (Bang Na-Trat) Highway in Bang Phli district at about 8pm on Monday.
Police found the lorry ablaze and heard a series of explosions from inside its cargo container. The flames reached the beams of the elevated expressway overhead, causing its burnt concrete surface plates to peel off and fall to the highway below.
Police stopped traffic and firefighters took about an hour to extinguish the blaze. No one was injured.
Lorry driver Chamlong Chanthamanee, 32, said he was hauling 125 cylinders of natural gas from a plant in Bang Bo district, Samut Prakan to deliver them to gas filling stations on Nuanchan Road in Bangkok.
As he was driving along Theparat Highway, a tyre burst and sparks from the wheel scraping along the road surface set fire to other tyres. He and his assistant tried to douse the flames with fire extinguishers, but the blaze quickly grew out of control.
Police were investigating the cause of the fire and were to ask engineers to check the affected stretch of expressway for structural damage.
