Locals search for undamaged paddy after
rice mills reduced to ashes (Photo: MNA)

The mill owners were reportedly demoralised by the loss. After the fire was extinguished several local residents who had also stored their own harvests in the storehouses were anxiously searching the debris for any remaining rice paddy (unprocessed rice).

It is still unclear how the blazes started.

Nai Chit Win Sein, 54, one of the farmers storing paddy at Nai Banyar Htun’s mill said: “I kept my 450 tins of paddy [18,412 litres, one tin is 40.9 litres.] in this storage after we finished harvesting from our farm. Right after the first mill caught fire, we rushed to get here by 1:20 am. We started putting out the fire as much as we could but it went on and engulfed another mill."

He also said that he has lost all of his harvest to the fire and he still owes the government 600,00 kyats for a farming loan that he took out. His family were slowly going through the wreckage of the storehouse to try and salvage any undamaged rice paddy that they could find.

According to the mill owner Nai Banyar Htun there was about 17,000 tins of rice paddy stored at his facility when the fire broke out.

Daw Thin Kyaing, a farmer who had stored 300 tins of paddy at Nai Than Sein’s mill said: "We placed all of our paddy in this mill's storage, now we are collecting as much of the remaining paddy as possible. I am not sure what the mill owner has decided regarding whether he will reimburse us [the cost of] our paddy."

According to farmers affected by the fire a tin of average quality rice is worth 6,000 kyats whilst a tin of better quality rice fetches 8,000 kyats.

A police officer at the Tha Ya Nar Village told a Mon News Agency (MNA) reporter that the Kyaikmayaw Township Police are investigating the blaze.

The two mills that burned down were next to each other but owned by different people.

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI