By Chiep Mony, VOA KhmerPhnom Penh
16 April 2008
A Phnom Penh fire destroyed as many as 40 homes Wednesday afternoon, in what officials attributed to faulty wiring.
No one was injured in the blaze, which began around 1 pm in Chamkarmon district and burned for nearly an hour.
The fire is at least the second to take place in a week. A fire April 11 in a Phnom Penh suburb destroyed hundreds of homes after burning for nearly seven hours.
Chamkarmon District Police Chief Uch Sokhon said at least 10 homes were destroyed Wednesday, but Thorng Chorn, commune chief of Psar Damko, where the fire took place, said 44 homes were burned.
“The fire was caused by a problem of electricity in one house whose landlord was not inside,” Uch Sokhon said.
However, home owner Yi Sophal told VOA Khmer she had seen an unidentified man try to set her home on fire around 2:30 am April 12.
She would not say whether she suspected arson this time.
No one was injured in the blaze, which began around 1 pm in Chamkarmon district and burned for nearly an hour.
The fire is at least the second to take place in a week. A fire April 11 in a Phnom Penh suburb destroyed hundreds of homes after burning for nearly seven hours.
Chamkarmon District Police Chief Uch Sokhon said at least 10 homes were destroyed Wednesday, but Thorng Chorn, commune chief of Psar Damko, where the fire took place, said 44 homes were burned.
“The fire was caused by a problem of electricity in one house whose landlord was not inside,” Uch Sokhon said.
However, home owner Yi Sophal told VOA Khmer she had seen an unidentified man try to set her home on fire around 2:30 am April 12.
She would not say whether she suspected arson this time.
6 comments:
it will be more blaze comimg up in capital phnom penh.
Man...This has gotta stop.
Need good urban planning, construction and electrical wiring standard in place to avoid such a catrastophe again.
There shall be always acess roads for fire truck to access during emergency
1. The fire was really an accident.
2. A lot of housing in and around phnom penh are very poors in terms of fire safety (electrical wire, rubbishes burning and lying down everywhere).
3. The streets are very small, that make the way for the rescue vehicles very difficult.
4. Once it burns, the city firefighters often cannot do anything, because of lack of support equipment. But in majority of case, fortunately, there is no or few victims.
5. The crowd and people are crazy and often consitutes a threat for the firefighters (damage the hoses, truck, etc.).
6. The government does not give a shit to fire safety and the fire services: lack of support and looking down on them; poor equipments, poor materials and very low salary for the fire fighters: between 15 to 25 usd/month. Most of them have a second job as motodoup to survive. As a results (it does not excuse that kind of corrruption), they are forced to ask financial participation from the properties owner...
CONCLUSION: as long as we have monkeys in the government, this situation, as other situation will never end. But Cambodia is a democracy with the vote of the people. If people choose the officials who make them suffer, this is their choice. We call it masochism...
a lot of reports on fire recently in cambodia. it may be due to the faulty wiring method in some place? as too much wires can be seen in the streets of cambodia. in the west, not bearly see any wires like in cambodia and some other cities in asia. so fire is prone to happen this way. there should be better improvement in the electrical system in cambodia so to prevent fire from happening from faulty-wires, etc...
I like to say that the man should go to jail for starting the fire. Because in United States when you set fire to homes or stores you have to go in the jail for arson fire.
From Maine
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