At least 23 buildings, including rice factories, sawmills and homes were burnt down when fire broke out in Minbya Town, Arakan State in the early hours of 15 May.
A duty officer from Minbya Police Station told Narinjara News: “Hostels, 23 homes and eight rice factories were destroyed by fire. At the moment we are still collecting data and information, so we cannot give you the details yet.”
According to eyewitnesses the fire started at 1am and firefighters got the fire under control at about 4am.
U Thein Zan, a local resident said: “The fire started in the area of the rice factories after 1am. All the rice factories were gone and some sawmills, timber shops, homes, and shops were also destroyed.”
He explained that though the fire brigade from Minbya tried to put out the fire as quickly as possible they faced problems because the fire was on the far side of a stream, which they could not reach because there is no bridge. They had to extinguish the fire from the other side of the stream, which is why so many buildings were burnt down.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
