Recent fire hits Phnom Penh

PHNOM PENH, April 11 (Xinhua) -- At least 200 small wooden houses in the poor community of Russey Keo district in northwestern Phnom Penh were burnt to ashes on Friday during this year's worst fire disaster but police have reported no human casualties so far.

The fire started from a massage parlor around five o'clock in the morning and quickly spread to other houses in the community, Cheng Hong, deputy district governor, told reporters at the scene, but unable to estimate the range of damage.

"We didn't know the exact number of houses ruined by the fire," he said, but confirmed that there was no information of human death.

Local police authorities and other government officials were unavailable for comments on casualties and damage.

Witnesses and neighborhood residents told reporters that a customer lost his property at the massage parlor and became angry. He walked away for a while, then came back with gasoline, burned the massage parlor with it, and at last managed to run away.

After the fire was started, all the massage girls also fled the house that they rented from a local person to run their business, they said.

Hundreds of families and at least 1,000 people were affected this time, while some people rescued their belongings and others just had no chance to do so, they said.

Most of the people in the community worked for garment factories and they rented the houses for daily life and stay, they added.

Sok Phy, who lived next to the massage parlor, said that this was the second time that massage parlors caused fire and damage in the community in recent years.

Last year, she said, a dozen houses were ruined by a fire from a massage parlor.

"This time, we didn't have the chance to stop the fire, because it spread to other houses so fast," she added.

Community security guard Vuth Vibol said that his house was entirely burnt down during the fire and he only rescued his pet cat.

"I knew the fire from my neighbor. He called me. I fled and found my cat on the sidewalk," he said.

Some of the residents locked their houses and went to their homeland for the upcoming Khmer New Year which falls on April 13 to 16, he said, adding that their properties were completely lost.

All the wooden houses were built next to each other in a disorderly manner, which helped the fire spread fast and also prevented the firefighters from entering the scene in time, said Thay Savut, senior firefighting officer.

"We couldn't reach the fire place to douse the blaze because the area was so small and had no real roads. We could only water some houses beside the main streets," he added.

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Updated: Apr 17, 2008