20131227 Thailand Fire sweeps Tak refugee camp
Thailand Dec 27 2013 “Houses” “Other bldg.”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : more than 70 Injured : injured 1 to 9
Fire sweeps Tak refugee camp
Updated: 2013-12-27-20:51
TAK – A ferocious blaze on Friday swept through part of the Mae La camp for Karen refugees in Tha Song Yang district of Tak province, injuring one man.
District chief Somchai Traithipchartsakul said that 93 shelters in zone C had been razed and 595 Karen refugees living there had been affected.
Mr Somchai said camp and district officials worked quickly to contain the fire and keep it from spreading to other zones.
Only one person suffered burns but was not seriously injured. The man was sent to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
Mr Somchai said soldiers from the Third Region Army, Tha Song Yang district officials, the Tak Red Cross and NGO officials had distributed necessities including food, water, clothes, blankets and medicines to the affected refugees.
Construction of new shelters would begin within the next two days, he added.
The affected refugees are now staying with their relatives inside the same camp.
Mae La is the largest of the nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, which altogether house around 150,000 refugees. It is home to 53,000 people, 90% of them Karen, some of whom have lived at the camp for 30 years.
Websource：Bangkok Post
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/386993/fire-sweeps-mae-la-refugee-camp