Two boys were killed and two were seriously injured in a fire on 10 April in Pawet Chaung (Faul Khali) Village in Thet Chaung (Balu Khali) Village tract, Maungdaw, said Rashid a local village elder.
He said the fire started accidentally in a house on 10 April at around 7.30pm, it quickly spread to adjoining buildings and burnt down eight houses and two cow sheds. The fire seriously injured four boys, two of whom later died. It also killed eight goats.
Hakim, a local businessman, said that the four badly injured boys were immediately sent to Maungdaw General Hospital where two of them then died on 11 April. The other two remain in a critical condition at the hospital.
He also said that it had taken nearly two hours for local villagers and three firefighting vehicles (one from Maungdaw Town and two from the local Burma Border Guard Police (BGP) headquarters) to put out the fire.
Mohamed Jalil, a trader from Pawet Chaung said that the Battalion Commander from the Nga Khura BGP base personally attended the blaze where he helped villagers fight the fire and assisted victims. In contrast the commander of the police outpost at Pawet Chaung barred villagers from going to help extinguish the fire.
Lalu, a Pawet Chaung elder, said that the fire had destroyed all the buildings resulting in losses of 160 million kyats.
He also said that the victims of the fire had received no help from the government or NGOs and that their only source of help had been neighbouring villagers.
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
