POIPET, CAMBODIA (AP) – The confirmed death toll from a massive fire at a hotel complex in western Cambodia rose to 25 yesterday as the search resumed for victims, officials said.
The blaze at the Grand Diamond City hotel in the town of Poipet on the Thai border started around midnight on Wednesday and was extinguished more than 12 hours later on Thursday afternoon.
By yesterday morning, 25 bodies had been recovered from the site, according to Banteay Meanchey province’s information department head Sek Sokhom. He said six bodies were found yesterday morning, some in their rooms and others on stairways.
More than 60 people were injured, he said, and the death toll was expected to rise once rescuers are able to access victims who are believed to be under debris or in locked rooms.
The Grand Diamond City complex has 500 employees, and it had 1,000 customers on Wednesday, according to a report from Cambodia’s National Committee for Disaster Management spokesperson Soth Kimkolmony. It was unclear how many were present when the fire broke out, and how many managed to flee to safety.
An accurate toll of the casualties has been hard to obtain due to the chaotic rescue efforts and since many of those saved were rushed across the border for treatment in neighbouring Thailand, which has better medical facilities.
Thai and Cambodian rescue teams have been working side-by-side in searching the 17-storey complex, but paused their efforts overnight at the dangerously damaged site.
Many of those inside, both customers and staff, were from neighbouring Thailand, which sent firetrucks and emergency workers to help.
Thailand’s Sa Kaeo Provincial Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Office has counted 11 dead – all Thai – and 109 injured, including 57 in hospitals.
An initial investigation found that the fire may have been caused by New Year’s holiday decorations that drew too much electricity, causing wires to overheat and burn, local authorities said.
Khmer Times, a Cambodian English-language news website, quoted Poipet city Governor Keat Hul describing the chaos when the fire broke out.
“Hotel workers used fire extinguishers to stop the fire but to no avail. People were panicking and rushing about everywhere but mainly for the nearest exit,” he said. “I was told that there was a stampede out at the main entrance when black smoke was billowing through the building.”
He was quoted saying he believed many of the deaths came from smoke inhalation and some people died when they leapt from high stories to escape the flames.
Poipet in western Cambodia is a site of busy cross-border trade and tourism opposite the city of Aranyaprathet in more affluent Thailand.
