Number of dead in Poipet casino inferno expected to surge

Banteay Meanchey provincial spokesman Sek Sokhom told Cambodian newspaper Kampuchea Thmey late Thursday afternoon that the death toll could rise to the hundreds. He said the casino complex had 400 staff and an unknown number of guests. Anyone trapped in a room during the fire can be presumed dead, he told the newspaper.

Rescue officials from Thai foundations who crossed the border from Sa Kaew’s Aranyaprathet district to the impoverished casino town on the Cambodian side of the border, said they retrieved bodies believed to be Thai.

The official number of fatalities has yet to be announced, but Cambodian media said at least 19 bodies had been recovered by mid-afternoon on Thursday and that those trapped inside the casino complex during the blaze were likely killed by smoke inhalation or fire.

Island of Peace newspaper reported that the blaze had spread to an adjacent casino, Poipet Resort and Casino. It said that the number of dead would surge as both casino workers and guests had been trapped inside the casino complex during the blaze.

Damage caused by the fire made it unsafe for rescuers to enter the building – which appeared in danger of collapsing – to search for bodies, the newspaper reported.

The two Thai-owned casinos are operated by Grand Exclusive Poipet Cambodia. They are located just 200 metres from Ban Klong Luk checkpoint in Aranyaprathet, along the main road through the busiest border checkpoint between Thailand and Cambodia.

The fire started at 11pm on Wednesday and rapidly swept through the complex. Thai and Cambodian employees as well as Thai gamblers were inside the casino complex when the blaze broke out.

Firefighters managed to control the blaze by noon on Thursday and kept dousing the building with water for fear the fire would resume.

Thai fire fighters said the building was completely ravaged by the fire and appeared on the brink of collapsing.

Opas Karnkawinpong, permanent secretary at the Public Health Ministry, said he was informed by Dr Prapas Phukduang, chief Sa Kaew province public health officer at 8:20am that 32 injured people were transported across the border to hospitals in Sa Kaeo.

Opas said 13 of them were in critical condition, three in mild condition and 16 were slightly injured. Opas said he had instructed all hospitals in Sa Kaew to be prepared to accept more injured people.

Hospitals on the Cambodian side of the border also reported receiving scores of patients, Cambodian media reported.

Opas added that he had sought cooperation from Rayong Hospital, Chonburi Hospital, Sunpasitthiprasong Hospital, Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital, Rajavithi Hospital, Maharat Nakhon Ratchasima Hospital, Ramathibodi Hospital, Chulalongkorn Hospital, and Vajira Hospital to prepared beds for patients critically injured in the blaze.

Cambodia’s firefighting departments are poorly equipped and their crews poorly trained. The country only enacted fire-safety legislation about five years ago. Firefighting departments in Cambodia rely primarily on donations of equipment and are frequently accused of failing to extinguish blazes until local residents or business owners pay bribes to make them do so.

Videos circulating on social media show panicked people waiting on rooftops and open winders for rescue cranes to help them escape. Firefighters in Poipet, however, had no rescue cranes to assist them. Several jumped from rooftops as the flames approached. At least two of them were killed while others sustained broken legs, Cambodian media reported. Videos circulating on social media show panicked people jumping from windows and the casino’s rooftop as no other escape routes were available. Earlier report:

At least 10 feared dead in Poipet casino inferno as people jump from 5th floor