CHIANG MAI: A third person has died from an explosion while workers were making a chemical mixture at a longan plantation on Tuesday evening.
Two women were killed immediately by the blast, one Thai and one from Myanmar. A third worker, a man from Myanmar, died from his injuries late on Tuesday night.
According to officials, the lethal explosion occurred in an isolated single-storey building in the middle of a longan orchard and about 500 metres from the nearest community, in Ban Chai Ngam village of tambon Mae Waen in Phrao district, on Tuesday evening.
At the time, workers there were mixing 75 kilogrammes of the potassium chlorate with 50kg of urea to make a substance to stimulate longan tree growth. The blast destroyed the building and two parked vehicles.
There was a similar powerful explosion of potassium chlorate in San Patong district in 1999.
