A 32-year-old widow burned to death on Sunday night in a house fire in Pursat province’s Krakor district, police said yesterday.
District police chief Em Run identified the woman as Yem Phoeun, whom he said often drank alone in her palm-leaf house.
“We searched the burnt house, but everything was charred. We collected only her rib cage and skull once the fire was out,” Run said.
He added that the home was far from other villagers, who were also asleep when the blaze began at about 9pm.
“The victim lit candles in the house every night and was always drunk.
We suspect the candle fell on her mosquito net and it burned and she could not run away because she was drunk,” he said.
According to an online statement by the National Police yesterday, the victim had drunkenly attempted to burn her house down once before, but villagers stopped her.
Fires have been the cause of 14 deaths, 16 injuries and 356 destroyed homes in the first half of 2015, according to the Ministry of Interior.
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