Large fire destroys over 400 shops in northern Myanmar

YANGON Thu Jun 3, 2010 12:06pm EDT
YANGON (Reuters) - More than 400 shops were destroyed when a huge fire broke out in a town in northern Myanmar on Thursday, the second major blaze at a commercial market in the last 10 days.
The fire started in the early hours of Thursday in the commercial town of Monywa, about 840 km (520 miles) north of the biggest city, Yangon, and burned down 410 of the 550 shops at a market, local fire officials said by telephone.

Investigators were yet to determine the cause of the fire and there were no known casualties.

A huge fire on May 24 at the five-storey Mingalar Zay market complex in Yangon raged for almost 12 hours, destroying 870 shops and causing damage worth more than $21 million.

In February, at least 650 shops were reduced to ash when a fire broke out in Thingangyun market in Yangon, Myanmar's commercial capital.

Fires have become a major problem in Myanmar, often as a result of the overheating of batteries used because of chronic power shortages in the country.

A total of 528 fires broke out across the country in the first four months of this year, killing 25 people, according to official statistics.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Martin Petty and Sugita Katyal)Rest of your post