Police in Thanpyuzayart Township, Mon State, are detaining eight youths after they were caught attempting to steal electronics from the Thanpyuzayart market. Six of the perpetrators are firemen and, though the attempted robbery occurred last week, the Fire Services Department (FSD) has remained silent.

The owner of the burgled electronics stall said that the market’s night guard saw ten boys attempting to break into the stall’s storage unit. The guard attacked the boys, who responded by stabbing him. The security guard has since recovered, but was hospitalized for three days.

Police arrested two of the youths at the scene, who gave the officers information that they used to capture six others who initially fled. The attempted robbery was not the first time electronics from the market had been burgled, says the stall owner. “A DVD player was stolen recently by someone who broke a stall’s lock by hitting it with the iron stick used by guards to ring the hourly bell.”

The perpetrators are between fifteen and twenty years old. According to a rubber plantation owner from the town, they are not from Thanpyuzayart and mostly live on the edge of town in the impoverished Aungzeya and Aungmingalar quarters. Most do not have houses and live with neighbors.

During the day, they scavenge rubber sap from plantations before working for the FSD. Most fireman are volunteers and do not earn salaries, although they are exempted from paying security fees or most other taxes levied by township authorities.

The Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement administer the FSD. Firemen are, according to the ministry, trained as a “reserve force to safeguard the peace and stability of the state.” In spite of the lofty rhetoric, firemen in Thanpyuzayart are not the only ones to go without pay. Residents of Three Pagoda Pass Township, in Karen State, for instance, say that only one fireman in the whole township is salaried. He earns 30,000 kyat a month, which is just under $24.4 USD.