According to the Yangon Fire Department, there were a total of four fires across the city yesterday, one of which resulted in a casualty.
Two of the fires were Level 1 house fires — one took place at 7:15 am in Hlaingtharyar, and another around noon in Dagon Myothit. A Level 2 blaze involving five houses occurred later on in the day around 2:45 pm in South Dagon.
The earliest and largest fire took place around 4 am at a monastery in Thanlyin, and was caused by an air conditioning unit that overheated in one of the living quarters within the compound. It took nine fire trucks and approximately 80 firefighters to put out the blaze.
A 45-year-old monk who lived at the monastery died as a result of smoke inhalation; his body was delivered to the Thanlyin General Hospital. Some items were also destroyed in the fire.
“The sayardaw [who passed away] was the only monk in residence here. When the fire started, the novice monks were outside. The sayardaw has been living at this monastery for about 10 years…It happened around 4 am so there was no one cooking. It [the cause of the fire] must’ve been something electricity related,” another monk who was close with the deceased told Eleven.
Naing Naing Tun, a monastic student from the monastery, has opened a case at the Thanlyin Police Station in regards to the incident.
