A fire broke out at Le Macao Casino Hotel in Svay Rieng’s Bavet town yesterday, injuring none but seriously damaging the building, according to local authorities.
The blaze began at 2:30pm, with multiple fire engines ordered to the site to extinguish the fire.
Send Sela, the governor of the town, a popular gambling destination on the Vietnam-Cambodia border, was at the scene. He said the fire destroyed parts of the ceiling, roof and floor, as well as chairs, sofas and other furniture.
Sela estimated the building was 40 percent destroyed.
He said the fire was the fault of a careless construction crew that was cutting and welding metal beams within the building. Sela added that the team fled the room immediately without trying to put out the fire.
However, Sela said, the situation could have been much worse.
“No one was injured or killed during the event. There were also no houses nearby,” he said.
Mao Phinphearum, Bavet town police chief, said the damage was much more severe than Sela’s estimate.
“The fire almost destroyed the whole casino,” he said, adding that the flames burned for three hours and required 11 fire engines to put them out. Six of the fire engines were sent over the border from Vietnam.
The owner of the casino could not be reached for comment.
