Warehouse Explosions Rock Burmese City, 17 Dead

A series of blasts that hit an industrial area in Rangoon, Burma, killed at least 17 people and injured more than 91 people early Thursday morning.
Warehouse Explosions Rock Burmese City, 17 Dead
A woman walks through debris at the site of an explosion in a warehouse, in Yangon on Dec. 29. A large pre-dawn explosion at a warehouse killed at least 17 people and injured dozens (Win/AFP/Getty Images)
12/29/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img class="size-large wp-image-1794498" title="Woman after explosion in Burma" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/burma-136224028-750.jpg" alt="Woman after explosion in Burma" width="590" height="339"/></a>
Woman after explosion in Burma

A series of blasts that hit an industrial area in Rangoon, Burma, killed at least 17 people and injured more than 91 people early Thursday morning.

The first explosion took place at a warehouse storing “electrical goods” at about 2 a.m. which then set off more explosions at other warehouses nearby, including one housing gunpowder and sulfuric acid, said the Irrawaddy publication.

As a result of the blasts, a huge fire ripped through other warehouses and destroyed around 226 nearby homes in the city. The death toll is expected to rise.

“My house collapsed the moment I heard the blast,” one victim told the publication.

Many victims were killed by falling debris or by collapsing buildings.

“It was just like a volcanic eruption like you see in the movies. … Two or three people more than 100 feet away from the warehouse were killed by flying debris,” a taxi driver named Ko Tin Than, 33, told Reuters.

“The explosion site is three bus stops away from my house, but the windows at my house were blown open by the impact of the blast,” said Myat Ko, a local resident told the Irrawaddy.

Officials in Rangoon, the largest city in Burma (also known as Myanmar), said they do not suspect the blasts were caused intentionally, according to the report.