ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

by Myint Maung | A fire on Sunday broke out at Rangoon's popular shopping mall, Yuzana plaza, and burnt down at least four shops including a famous TRI fashion shop on the ground floor of the mall, eyewitnesses and fire fighters said.

According to an eyewitness, the fire started at about 6:30 p.m (local time) from the TRI fashion shop, and burnt three others on the ground floor of Yuzana Plaza in Rangoon's Minglar Taung Nyunt Township.

An official at Rangoon's central fire department also confirm of the fire, which was extinguished at about 7:30 p.m by fire fighters, but decline to elaborate on it.

"Yes, it is true that there was fire [at the Yuzana Plaza] but we cannot tell you anything else more," the official told Mizzima over telephone.

The eyewitness, however, said the fire was believed to have started off from an electric wire shock from the TRI fashion shop and spread it out to three others, which mainly sells textiles and clothing.

The eyewitness said, there were no human casualties from the fire as the shops have been closed. It was not immediately known of how much the shops lost from the fire.

On Thursday, a man and a woman were killed by a fire that broke out in a room close to the Mingalar plaza of Rangoon's Minglar Taung Nyunt Township.

Both the man and woman, who died in the hospital later, were in the room when the fire started and were choked by smoke before fire fighters could extinguish the blaze.

While fire in Burma were not uncommon, another source in Rangoon said, it has become more frequent recently.

As residents in various townships of Rangoon, received only 6 hours of electricity supply per day in a rotation system, the source said, people often forgets to put off electric switches, from which wire shocks often occurs.

According to him, the fire at Yazana Plaza began from an electric switch board from the shop, which the shop keepers had forgot to put it off before closing the shop, as there was no electricity at the time they left.

An official at the Rangoon electricity department earlier told Mizzima that electricity supply failed as there was a fault in the gas-propel turbine, which is used to generate electricity. He said electricity had been supplied in a rotation system to various townships.

Edited by Mungpi