Massive Fire at Cambodia Hotel Casino Kills at Least 19

Thai rescue workers stand in front of the destroyed part of the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino after a fire in Poipet on Dec. 30, 2022. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images)

A fire at a casino complex in Cambodia has killed 19 people and injured at least 70 more; with the death toll widely expected to rise as rescuers continue to search the building, officials have said.

The deadly blaze broke out at the Grand Diamond City hotel-casino in Poipet, which borders Thailand, on Wednesday evening, sending those inside scrambling to escape while others jumped to their deaths, police said.

It is unclear how many people were inside the building at the time or what caused the blaze, which was eventually put out by firefighters at around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday.

The hotel-casino employs 500 workers and had around 1,000 customers on Wednesday, according to a report from Soth Kimkolmony, a spokesperson for Cambodia’s National Committee for Disaster Management.

Many of the guests inside were reportedly Thai, although Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese, and Cambodians were among the nationalities in the building at the time of the fire.

“There are 19 dead so far as we see bodies and bones,” Sek Sokhom, director of Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey provincial information department, told Agence France-Presse.

He added that the death toll is expected to rise as rescuers have not yet reached parts of the building where many are believed to be trapped.

Thai ambulances rush to cross a checkpoint to reach a burning casino on the Cambodian side of the border on Dec. 29, 2022. (Reuters)

Video footage shared online showed the building consumed by flames as firefighters worked to contain the blaze. Other disturbing footage showed people jumping to their deaths from the burning building.

“Two people died immediately when they hit the ground and around four to five (others) broke their legs,” Peerapan Srisakorn, from the Aranyaprathet Rescue Foundation, told CNN.

Neighboring Thailand also sent firetrucks and emergency workers on Thursday to aid in putting out the blaze and rescuing those still stuck inside.

Victims on Life Support

According to Thai authorities in neighboring Sa Kaeo province, more than 50 victims from the blaze had been hospitalized there, of which 13 are reportedly on life support.

Sa Kaeo Governor Parinya Phothisat said around 60 people who had been in the building but managed to escape have since left the hospital after being given the all-clear. Phothisat added that Thai hospitals had treated 79 Thai nationals, 30 Cambodians, and eight Indonesians.

Smoke rises as a fire burn through a Cambodian hotel-casino near a Cambodia-Thai international border gate in Poipet, west of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Dec. 28, 2022. (Fresh News/Photo via AP)

Authorities said that an initial investigation appeared to suggest that the fire may have been caused by New Year’s holiday decorations drawing too much electricity, which in turn caused the wires to overheat and erupt into flames; however, an investigation remains ongoing.

More than 100 rescue workers continue to search the building for survivors.

The casino is just a few meters (yards) from the border checkpoint with Thailand and is popular with customers who make the four-hour drive from the Thai capital, Bangkok. Casinos are illegal in Thailand.

Wednesday’s fire follows similar fires at entertainment venues in Thailand and Vietnam this year. In August, a fire broke out at a Thai nightclub in eastern Chonburi province, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more.

In September, a fire that broke out in southern Vietnam killed 32 people at a karaoke bar. Police at the time said some of the fatalities were caused after customers failed to act on warnings by employees to flee the building

In 2009, pyrotechnics started a blaze at a New Year’s party at the crowded Santika nightclub in Bangkok, killing 66 people and injuring hundreds more. The owner of the nightclub was subsequently jailed for three years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.