Grandmother, 74, burned alive after slipping into bonfire she made for garden waste
- 5 years ago
A frail grandmother was burned alive after falling into a bonfire that she made for garden waste in Thailand.
Sombat Tesjam, 74, had spent all day piling up the branches on land near her home in Uthai Thani, on Thursday (November 7) afternoon.
But children playing in a nearby field heard her screams for help and rushed over to find her struggling in the scorching flames.
Sombat's niece, Amornrat Kluithong, 45, arrived and tried to help but wasn't able to get close enough to the inferno.
Instead, they could only watch as the pensioner was burned alive by the bonfire.
Amornrat said they believed that she tripped or collapsed from the heat while trying to prod the bonfire with a stick.
She said: ''My relative was in the flames and she couldn't get out. She had made many bonfires before and never had a problem. I can still see her in my eyes screaming from the pain.''
Firefighters eventually arrived to extinguish the fire but it was too late to save the old woman.
Sombat's grieving husband Sathit Tesjam, 77, said that his wife had lit the fire herself but was accidentally caught up in it.
He said: "She went to light the pile of scrap wood that we had been storing, waiting to be rid of it. I think she might have passed out after she inhaled the smoke from the fire and the sun was hot as well."
"I was shocked when my niece came and told me that she was burning in the fire but the fire was too big for us to extinguish so we had to wait for the firefighters."
Sombat Tesjam, 74, had spent all day piling up the branches on land near her home in Uthai Thani, on Thursday (November 7) afternoon.
But children playing in a nearby field heard her screams for help and rushed over to find her struggling in the scorching flames.
Sombat's niece, Amornrat Kluithong, 45, arrived and tried to help but wasn't able to get close enough to the inferno.
Instead, they could only watch as the pensioner was burned alive by the bonfire.
Amornrat said they believed that she tripped or collapsed from the heat while trying to prod the bonfire with a stick.
She said: ''My relative was in the flames and she couldn't get out. She had made many bonfires before and never had a problem. I can still see her in my eyes screaming from the pain.''
Firefighters eventually arrived to extinguish the fire but it was too late to save the old woman.
Sombat's grieving husband Sathit Tesjam, 77, said that his wife had lit the fire herself but was accidentally caught up in it.
He said: "She went to light the pile of scrap wood that we had been storing, waiting to be rid of it. I think she might have passed out after she inhaled the smoke from the fire and the sun was hot as well."
"I was shocked when my niece came and told me that she was burning in the fire but the fire was too big for us to extinguish so we had to wait for the firefighters."