Firemen vs Downtown Bangkok Traffic

It makes me cringe when I hear sirens anywhere in Bangkok, especially during the peak morning and afternoon traffic windows. While I give the Thai credit for understanding the need to move out of the way of emergency vehicles on their errands of mercy, if you've been in the more congested areas of Bangkok you know that sometimes there simply isn't spare room to allow them easy passage.

Emergencies overall tend to be a race against time; often a game of mere minutes. I know that if it were the building I was inside of it certainly would be.

From my window I heard a faint siren approaching along the street below and watched as a small plume of smoke become the larger black billowing tower above, rising above the 80+ story Baiyoke Tower, the single siren joined from other directions by several more. I couldn't help but wonder what they were dealing with traffic-wise during lunch hour, and made the same wish I do back home when I hear sirens: that it's only property damage and nobody's severely injured.

This fire was mentioned on the news later that afternoon, and I'd gotten my wish.