300 Houses Destroyed in Mandalay Blaze

By MIN LWIN

Three hundred houses were burned down in a blaze on Monday afternoon in Myayee Nandar, a satellite township of Mandalay, according to members of the city’s fire brigade. No one has been reported killed.

“The fire broke out in a private gasoline store,” a firefighter at the scene told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday. “It happened while a motorbike was filling up with gasoline.”

A local resident estimated that as many as 500 houses located between 54th and 55th streets were destroyed by the fire. She said those made homeless by the blaze have been given shelter in religious halls, government schools and playgrounds.

Another Mandalay resident who lives nearby said, “The fire started around 3 p.m. I saw smoke coming along the street. We don’t know how many people have been killed in the fire. It lasted two hours.”

One year ago, Mandalay was the scene of another horrific fire. On February 25, 2008, a blaze erupted at Yadanabon Market in Mandalay’s Chanaye Thazan Township. The state-run New Light of Myanmar reported that the fire destroyed 1,428 market shops, 17 offices and 113 other workspaces.

Twenty-one people, including eleven firemen and four monks, were injured trying to extinguish the Yadanabon Market blaze.