Local police said three women had sustained major and minor injuries after a fire broke out in their house on the morning of March 6 in Teuk La’ak I commune of Phnom Penh’s Toul Kork district.

District police chief Sok Heng said the fire department had not yet determined the cause of the fire, while the three women were taken to hospital for treatment.

Department director Prum Yorn told The Post that after the fire was extinguished, his team made inquiries with witnesses and the victims as to the cause of the blaze.

“According to them, the fire was caused by a careless welder who was working on the roof. Embers fell and set fire to a mattress below him. The fire not only destroyed the house, but injured three women,” he said.

Yorn identified the three women as Sy Bunsrey, 47, SrinThida, 62, and Heng Mey Mey, 26.

Yorn said 36 appliances had responded, and about 200 cubic metre of water had been used. The fire trucks came from the fire police and firms including the Overseas Cambodia Investment Corporation and Khmer Brewery.

In a separate case, police in Kampong Cham province’s Stung Trang district reported that a fire broke out the same afternoon but there were no casualties.

“The police concluded that the fire was started by children who were burning rubbish near some timber offcuts. The fire damaged stairs in the Anlong Saly pagoda,” said deputy district police chief Phorn Senglim.