TAK - Fire destroyed about 200 impounded vehicles in the parking lot of the customs office in Mae Sot district on Tuesday night.
The fire broke out at the new customs compound under construction in tambon Tha Sai Luat at 7.30pm. There were about 800 vehicles at the parking lot.
About 20 fire engines were deployed and firefighters took about three hours to put out the blaze.
No one was injured and police were investigating the cause of the fire.
Customs Department spokesman Phantong Loykulnanta said the huge fire in the impounded vehicles compound was unprecedented.
The destroyed vehicles were old and unusable, from legal cases that were still pending or already finalised. There were no luxury cars among them.
A Mae Sot customs official said the impounded vehicles were originally imported from Japan and were en route to Myanmar. They had been held up at the border by the wars in Myanmar for so long that local customs officials had to, by law, impound them years ago.
The customs office had tried to auction them off but there had been no interest because the reserve price was set too high, the official said.