A fire tore through a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district on Monday evening, destroying more than half of the building and its inventory but injuring no workers, an official said Tuesday.
The fire started at about 6 p.m. as workers at the Korean-owned SG International factory began heading home for the day and quickly consumed large parts of the plant, according to Prum Yorn, chief of the Phnom Penh fire department.
Mr. Yorn said workers initially tried to extinguish the flames with fire extinguishers but were unsuccessful, while 25 firetrucks dispatched to the scene from across the city eventually brought the blaze under control.
Nobody was hurt, he added. “The fire started in the southwest end of the factory, where the stock of fabric was, and quickly spread to the area where the fabric was cut and then to the ironing section,” Mr. Yorn said, explaining that 50 to 60 percent of the factory’s inventory was lost.
“We still do not know how the fire started, and we will continue to investigate this case,” he said, adding that police were searching for the factory’s owner.
