20190328 ‘Electrical fault’ causes major fire in Kampong Cham footwear factory
Cambodia Mar 28 2019 “Building” “Factories”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
‘Electrical fault’ causes major fire in Kampong Cham footwear factory
Updated: 2019–03–29
A footwear factory in Kampong Cham province was badly damaged in a fire on Thursday, damaging one building and almost all the equipment inside, but no one was injured.
The authorities suspect that the fire was the result of an electrical fault.
Kampong Cham provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun told The Post on Thursday that Chou Huoy factory, in Rovieng village in Cheung Prey district’s Khnor Dambang commune, caught fire at 6am on Thursday.
Electrical fault
The police and fire service managed to extinguish the blaze completely at about 8am, he said, using nine fire engines and 200kg of soap – which is mixed with water to increase its extinguishing efficiency.
Chamroeun said that experts had concluded that the fire resulted from an electrical fault and, given all the flammable material inside, they had done well to put out the blaze as quickly as they did.
Amongst other things, the factory contained glue, aviation fuel, soles of shoes and finished footwear.
“If we hadn’t acted so fast, many of the factory’s buildings would have burnt to the ground because there were a lot of containers filled with aviation fuel and tens of thousands of footwear soles and other flammable substances.”
“If we hadn’t been able to put it out so quickly, what would be left after the fire?” he said.
Chamroeun said no one was injured because the fire started before the workers arrived to begin their shift.
He added that technical authorities are questioning witnesses from the scene and the factory owner, as well as conducting further investigations to accurately determine the real cause of the devastating fire.
Kampong Cham provincial police chief Em Kosal was unavailable for comment on Thursday.
No one injured
Deputy Cheung Prey district police chief Cheang Se said 95 officers from the provincial intervention team and the district intervention force cooperated to extinguish the fire, which damaged one building and a large amount of equipment in the factory.
“We can say that we extinguished it in time because there are many buildings in the factory which are located near each other and each building contained flammable rubber. If we couldn’t control it, it would have spread to other buildings and then it would be extremely difficult,” he said.
Kampong Cham provincial police headquarters reported on Thursday that authorities used 9 fire engines – two of which were their own, one was from Cheung Prey district itself, two were from Batheay district.
A further fire engine belonged to Kang Meas district police, while one came from Prey Chhor district, one from Chamkar Leu district and one came from Kampong Thom province’s Baray district.
Web Source: Phnompenh Post