It seems fires quite frequently break out across Bangkok. Quite often they are slum fires that raze makeshift homes made of wood and tin sheets. In just the past two years at least four or five have broken out just along Rama IV Road, where I live. I remember one in the Penang Market close to Klong Toei Market, another in a shanty town across the road from there, one at the Mandarin Hotel, and another in a cargo yard.