Fire at Cambodia nightclub kills 5 women

AP / Yahoo News | 8 September 2015

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A large fired that apparently started in the sound mixing room engulfed a popular nightclub in the Cambodian capital, killing at least five women trapped in one of the rooms, an official said Tuesday.

The fire started two hours before the club was to open at 10 p.m. Monday for the night's entertainment, said Col. Neth Vantha, the chief of the Phnom Penh fire department.

He said two of the victims worked at the club and the other three worked for a local drinking water company and had come there to arrange an office party. The victims, aged 17 to 28, died of suffocation from smoke, after the main door of the club caught fire, he said.

The smoke swirled inside the room where the five were sitting. Two men were critically injured, Neth Vantha said.

He said preliminary investigation indicates the fire appeared in the sound mixing and control room, presumably from an electric short circuit. It took 23 fire trucks to put out the fire in a three-hour operation, he said.

He said the same nightclub had burned down in a fire in 2013 also when three people were killed, including the owner's wife.