House Fire Response in Central Phnom Penh

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Cambodia, together with the Cambodia Adventist Mission, responded to a fire on 8 March, 2010 which total destroyed a block of private wooden homes in a poor section of Tuol Kork, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Per the Phnom Penh City Hall over 407 families were affected (150 renters losing their belongings and 257 home owners losing their homes and possessions) as well as 181 students and 90 monks totaling over 2,000 persons.

The fire began at 6:30pm on 8 March and burned for about 3 hours. The cheaply constructed homes were over a swampy area beside the railroad tracks. Homes were surrounded by the railroad on one side, the Neak Kavoan pagoda complex on another side, a road on a third side and a small alley on the forth. A high wind carried the fire quickly and city fire engines were unable to enter the area due to the close conditions of the houses except for one small alley where they used water to stop the fire from spreading towards more homes. Fortunately a railroad and a road stopped the fire on two sides while monks in the pagoda complex on the fourth side tried in vain to stop the fire from spreading to their homes before open space stopped the fire from spreading to the rest of the Pagoda buildings. Residents stated that they had experienced small fires in the past and had always been able to extinguish them before they got out of control. Families have moved either to family and friends homes, onto the small spaces by the railroad or onto the compound of the Pagoda and are waiting for the solutions that the government is now offering them which include resettlement, cash settlements or accepting smaller portions on the same city lot allowing for easements for roads to be able to access for fire prevention in the future.

ADRA coordinated with the Phnom Penh City Hall to determine the numbers of homes and persons affected, the needs, what others were doing and the appropriate response. Following a preapproved ADRA Network emergency response valued at $10,000, ADRA purchased rice, sugar, oil, fish, noodles and tarpaulins and worked with ADRA and CAM staff to bag and distribute these to address immediate food and shelter needs of all the 2,000 persons. The goods were distributed together with the City Hall donation at the Neak Kavoan pagoda complex on 10 March where the Phnom Penh City governor expressed appreciation for the coordinated, immediate response.

All Publications