Deadly Fire Breaks Out at Cambodia Casino
At least 25 people have lost their lives in a fire that broke out at the Grand Diamond City Hotel and Casino in Poipet, a stone’s throw from the Thai-Cambodia border. The death toll is expected to rise as numerous people are still unaccounted for. At least 70 guests were caught and injured by the fire, the cause of which is currently unknown, but may have been sparked by an electrical issue or decorations for the New Year. The casino, which employed approximately 400 people remains a highly frequented venue for Thai gamblers seeking to avoid their country’s domestic gambling illegality.
The country of Cambodia has been inflicted with a deadly fire incident after flames broke out at the Grand Diamond City Hotel, taking the lives of at least 25 people. ©Olga1205/Pixabay
According to Cambodia’s National Committee for Disaster Management, two individuals died upon impact after jumping from the roof, while four or five others sustained broken legs. The severity of this blaze is not lost on anyone, and the entire casino sector in Cambodia has been terribly affected by this tragedy; not only have 25 people perished in this disaster, but one of the largest casino properties in Asia has been terribly damaged and partially destroyed.
The shocking ways in which the poor people trapped inside the casino were forced to jump from 10+ story rooms will leave a scar on the communities around this venue. Local emergency services battled the flames and worked throughout the night to rescue as many of the trapped people as they could. Using water cannons cranes, a helicopter, and other rescue apparatus to access the highest points of the building.
The casino sits very close to the border with Thailand and has been a place frequently visited by guests from Thailand as casino gambling is illegal in the country. With the onset of the emergency, Thai firefighters were made aware of the incident around 4am local time, and hastily made their way into Cambodian territory to assist with the emergency response efforts.
Death Toll Likely to Increase as the Search Begins
The rescue operation for survivors of the fire has been concluded and there are not going to be any further survivors found at this point. But as the building is torn through in the clean-up operation the authorities have already warned that they are expecting to find more bodies in the burnt-out rubble. This tragic certainty has not been lost on people trying to calculate the damage to life resulting from the incident, and whilst the current death toll is totaled at 25, this is expected to rise as the search effort ramps up.
In the aftermath of the incident the bodies being carried out from the building had to be taken in by a local Buddhist temple. This place of worship quickly transformed into a medical center, with doctors and nurses triaging and saving the lives of the severely injured victims that totaled more than 70. Many were arriving in ambulances having suffered burns, smoke inhalation, or from having impact injuries after jumping from windows.
Another tragic detail that has emerged in the aftermath is the way that the infrastructure of the building may have caused more people to become trapped and have died. The electrical door and elevator system for the building failed early after the outbreak of the fire. Without any backup power to enable these systems, people were trapped in rooms and on higher floors without any mechanical method to break out of the rooms. When these rooms are opened, many more bodies are expected to be discovered.
Casinos in Thailand are mostly illegal, as a result the Cambodian gaming industry tends to receive a lot of guests from Thailand who seek the legality that the region offers. With this, it’s known that many of the guests inside the hotel at the time of the fire outbreak would have been Thai nationals. The Great Diamond City hotel, just like many others in Cambodian was strategically positioned just a few hundred meters from the border checkpoint – and just a four-hour drive from the capital city of Thailand, Bangkok.
