BREAKING NEWS: Fire at Mae La Refugee Camp

A fire has destroyed a bible school and other buildings in Mae La Refugee Camp, 57km north of the Thai town of Mae Sot at 12.30pm today. Camp residents managed to put out the fire after about an hour.

A camp resident whom witnessed the fire explained to Karen News that the fire destroyed several buildings in the Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College (KKBBSC) compound located in Zone C.1A of Mae La refugee camp.

“The fire started in the food storage building. Now many buildings including the school, food storage, library, teachers’ houses and other buildings were destroyed by the fire.”

A teacher at the bible school said.

“All buildings in the school compound were destroyed by the fire – there’s nothing left.”

A camp resident who helped put out the fire described to Karen News that as many as a 1,000 people helped to stop the fire by dismantling the dried-leaf roofs of surrounding houses so the fire could not spread through out the bamboo houses in the camp.

“It looks like the fire is under control. The fire has stopped spreading now, but some materials that caught earlier are still burning. I saw one person was injured.”

At the time of writing, Thai police and camp authorities are investigating the incident and say it is still too early to estimate the cost associated with the fire.

Northern Thailand is currently experiencing a heatwave with temperatures reaching as high as 42c.

On February 23, there was a huge fire at Umphiem Refugee camp where over 500 houses were destroyed by the fire and over 500 houses dismantled to prevent fire from spreading. There were over 4,400 refugees affected by the fire.