Rescuers search for bodies in ruins of Cambodia casino fire; at least 27 killed

POIPET, Cambodia - When Ms Nunthida Kongreung heard a huge fire had broken out at the casino-hotel, she started calling her parents who were on vacation there, but nobody answered.

When finally someone called back, it was a rescue worker who had found their bodies, slumped against each other in their hotel room on the 17th floor, where they died from smoke inhalation.

Her parents were among at least 27 people who

died in the blaze at Grand Diamond City Casino and Hotel

, which also injured more than 100 people. At least 20 others remain missing.

The cause of the fire, which broke out around midnight on Wednesday, is still unknown but Mr Sek Sokhom, head of the Banteay Meanchey provincial information department, said it may have been due to an electrical short circuit. A government committee has been set up to investigate the cause.

“The rescuers said my parents were not burned, but they choked from inhaling smoke. So, if help had come earlier they might have survived,” Ms Nunthida, 36, said at a hospital on the Thai side of the border where many of the dead and injured were taken.

On Friday, Cambodian rescue teams recovered several bodies from the charred rooms of the casino-hotel. The authorities said they had to move slowly through the smouldering remains of the building in case it collapsed.

Dozens of rescue workers lined up outside the site on Friday, taking turns to go through the building room by room, while heavy machinery was used to clear blackened debris, video footage shared by Thai volunteer rescue organisation Ruamkatanyu Foundation showed.

A Grand Diamond City worker, who asked not to be named as it might affect her job, said she was working on the third floor of the 17-floor hotel wing when the blaze broke out.

“At first, it was not a huge fire,” she said. But she and a co-worker were soon forced to flee from the building when the flames began rampaging towards them.

“It (the fire) got huge rapidly,” she said, still in a state of shock over the destruction and death caused by the blaze.

Another survivor recounted seeing a light fixture throw off sparks that caused flames that reached the ceiling.

“Then it started getting chaotic. After the fire hit the ceiling, I don’t think it was OK,” Mr Piyapol Sukkaew, a patron who was on the casino floor at the time, told Thai broadcaster Channel 7.

“It had gone on for half an hour and the fire trucks hadn’t arrived. After just five minutes, there was smoke everywhere.”

Like most of the victims, Ms Nunthida’s parents, Puttika and Udon, were Thai nationals. Both were retired and liked to travel to nearby places for vacations, she said.

Casinos in Poipet and other Cambodian towns are popular with short-term visitors from Asian countries that ban gambling, like Thailand.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Friday expressed condolences to the victims and their families, and urged the authorities to improve fire safety and response times.

Safety standards in Cambodia and other parts of South-east Asia can be well below international standards and poorly enforced.

Hundreds of Cambodian army and police officers, as well as volunteers from Thailand, were helping with the search on Friday.

Many of those injured were taken over the border to the Thai province of Sa Kaeo for treatment, with local officials on the Thai side of the border stating more than 50 had been hospitalised, with 13 in critical condition.

Thailand’s foreign ministry said it was working closely with Cambodian authorities to find and identify Thais involved in the incident and was sending “additional equipment, consular officers and police attache” to Poipet. REUTERS, AFP