HOUSE OF THE WEEK
Warm single-storey house in Thingangyun
UNCOMPLICATED suburban living sums up this single-level house in Thingangyun township. The house is not overly spacious but there is a nice garden and lawn as compensation. more
Blaze guts Thingangyun Market
(Volume 26, No. 510)
A Yangon City Development Committee worker cleans up debris at Thingangyun Market on February 13. Pic: Aung Aung
A HUGE fire destroyed about 80 percent of one of Yangon’s largest markets on Friday evening but no casualties have so far been reported, officials told The Myanmar Times last week.
Thingangyun Market was almost completely gutted by the fire, which began at about 7:15pm and took firemen more than three hours to bring under control.
A fire department official said a poorly wired light bulb in a grocery stall was thought to have started the blaze. Fuelled by barrels of palm oil, it quickly spread through the market’s narrow laneways and tightly packed stalls.
U Thin Htay Shwe, deputy director of the Yangon Division Fire Services Department, said on February 13 that more than 650 of the market’s 786 shops had been destroyed and two houses near the market were also badly damaged.
However, he estimated the damage to be only K4.7 million (about US$4500).
The destroyed shops include grocery stalls, textile and garment shops and some gold shops.
“We were able to get to the market within 15 minutes of the fire breaking out,” U Thin Htay Shwe said. “We quickly realised that local residents had no chance of putting it out on their own, the fire was already very large by that stage.”
More than 500 firemen and 56 trucks were needed to bring the fire under control, he said.
Authorities have already begun taking action against the head of the market’s management committee, U Myo Thet, under section 285 of the criminal code, U Thin Htay Shwe said. The case number is par/150/2010.
