A man torched his mother’s home after she refused to – or couldn’t – give him money to buy drugs, police say.
The 30-year-old man, who police have not yet named, is alleged to have set fire to the family home following the dispute with his mum. The whole property, a two-story house made of half concrete and half wood, burned down but no one was seriously injured.
Emergency services dashed to the scene in Ban Kamphi, a rural and remote village in southwest Thailand, on Friday at around 11.00am local time (5.00am UK time) to reports of a large fire. Police carried out an investigation and officers were able to arrest the man, having established a row over drugs led to the alleged arson.
The fire service said the blaze raged in the hot weather Thailand is experiencing at the moment and so the house was quickly destroyed. Neighbouring buildings were damaged, albeit less severely, as the fire spread rapidly.
Police say, fortunately, the mother took her grandchildren for a walk in the village following the row, and so weren’t in when the fire started. Officers arrested the suspect upon arrival on Friday. He remains in custody, according to local media.
Images and footage shared on social media show fierce flames roar from the two-storey property. Video also captures bystanders carrying people, including children, from neighbouring homes to safety in Ban Kamphi.
Writing on social media, people across Thailand expressed their relief the family wasn’t inside the building at the time of the horror. Comments, when translated into English, include: “I feel so sorry for the parents” and a post that read: “Drugs are such a terrible problem in society.” Another post reads: “Oh no, this is so sad.”
When a pensioner here in Leek, Staffordshire, was high on monkey dust last summer, he started a fire that caused £100,000 in damage. The blaze caused “extensive fire and smoke damage” to the living room, bedroom and hallway of Walter Harrison’s own bungalow in the market town.
Harrison – who has 23 convictions for 53 offences – was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to arson with intent to endanger life earlier this month after a court heard he took the banned substance monkey dust before his rage. The man was rendered homeless following the fire, which his lawyer told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court happened following stress.
“He is sorry for what happened and appreciates the damage he caused and the risks he posed. He knows today will be prison, perhaps this is a second home to him, but I would ask his sentence to be as short as possible,” the barrister said.
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