Feb 26, 2008 (DVB), A fire raged for two hours yesterday morning in Hlaing Tharyar on the outskirts of Rangoon, destroying around 100 houses, local residents said.

An eyewitness told DVB that the fire broke out in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone 4’s Yay Oak Kan village at 7.30am on Monday and lasted for about two hours before it was extinguished by firefighters at around 9.45am.

"The fire destroyed about 100 houses," said the eyewitness.

"It burned for about two hours as the houses were so spread out in the area and fire trucks were unable to get down the very narrow lanes to reach the site of the fire."

The witness said he had heard rumours that some people had been killed in the blaze, but this has not been confirmed.

The cause of the fire is still not clear, but locals said it was likely to be due to careless use of fire by one of the households in the area.

An emergency aid centre was set up by authorities at a nearby monastery to provide shelter and food to the fire victims.

Reporting by Aye Nai