FIVE houses were damaged in a residential blaze on Monday evening in Russey Keo district’s Svay Pak commune, just 3 kilometres from the site of a fire last Thursday that destroyed 243 houses and left 452 families temporarily homeless.

Hou Samorn, Svay Pak commune chief, said Monday that the fire started after an electrical fault in 70-year-old Mak Samoun’s house.

“Three wooden houses were burned down completely in the middle of two concrete houses, which were partly burned,” he said, adding that no one was injured, but that the families’ possessions were mostly lost. “The families were at home at the time of the fire, but they did not have time to grab their belongings,” he said.

Neth Vantha, director of the Municipal Fire Department, said all seven fire trucks were dispatched to prevent the fire from spreading to other houses nearby, and warned residents to exercise caution with the approach of the dry season.

“We always tell people to have extinguishers because fire can break during dry season,” he said.