Fire in Takeo market causes over $230,000 worth of damage
May 7, 2021 / Khmer Times
A fire broke out in Takeo province’s Tram Kak Market on Wednesday night, destroying 22 stalls and causing $234,750 worth of damage.
The market is in the province’s Tram Kak district, in Tram Kak commune’s Trapeang Rumpak village.
Tram Kak district police chief Duk Thiya said the fire was caused by a short circuit damaging 50 stalls, and destroying 22 completely, including mobile phone stalls, clothes and shoes stalls.
“The fire in Tram Kak Market started at about 6.20pm and was brought under control at about 8.30pm,” he said.
In this operation, the provincial Fire Prevention and Rescue police in cooperation with the Tram Kak district police and relevant authorities helped to extinguish the fire using a total of 14 water trucks.
Three fire trucks were from Takeo provincial police, while Tram Kak district, Traing district, Samrong district, Bati district, Angkor Borei district, Prey Kabbas district, Koh Andet district, Kirivong district, Angkor Chey police, Chhuk district of Kampot provincial police commission and Baseth district police all provided one truck each to tackle the blaze.
Tram Kak commune chief Som Rath yesterday told Khmer Times that according to inquiries, the fire was caused by faulty electrics from a mobile phone stall that then spread to other stalls. In this incident, no people, stall owners or authorities were injured.
Yesterday morning, Rath gathered statistics from affected stall owners to know the total amount of damage done by the fire.
“We estimate that 22 stalls that were completely destroyed by the fire totalled about $234,750, but this is only a preliminary estimate based on the data provided by the owners,” Rath said.
In terms of the damage to these 22 stalls, it is about eight percent of the whole market and we do not know exactly how much the compensation will be, he added
In addition, there was a donation yesterday morning to the stall owners from the Cambodian Red Cross to express their sadness over the fire that caused the loss of property while people are still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
