On October 19, Fire broke out at Kandawgyi Palace Hotel, one of the iconic landmarks of Yangon. According to the Police report, the fire started on the fifth floor of the lakeside hotel at around 3:30 a.m. Over 500 firefighters and 60 fire trucks from Yangon and nearby states and regions tried but failed to save the hotel. About 80 percent of hotel was damaged. At the time of the fire breakout, 96 rooms were occupied with 141 guests, the majority being foreign tourists. Guests were transferred to Rose Garden and Chatrium Hotels. Speaking at a press conference, Htay Lwin, spokesperson of Htoo Group of Companies which owns the hotel said “Fire resulted in two casualties and two injuries. Two bodies have been found at the site. One was identified as a Japanese man named Masafumi Tomita, in his 50s, who had been staying at the Kandawgyi Palace Hotel and the body of a second person, found on the hotel’s fifth floor, was sent to Yangon Hospital for a post-mortem”.
He added a woman from Macao suffered a hip injury after she jumped from her third-floor room to escape the fire. The cause of fire is being investigated. According to the Ministry of Home affairs, 91 of the 185 guest rooms of Kandawgyi Lake were totally destroyed by the fire.
The Htoo Group, which owns the Hotel, has bought insurance worth almost 1.5 billion Kyats ($ 10,991,651) for the hotel. Two policies worth K 855 million and K75 million are from State-controlled Myanmar Insurance while one more policy worth of K523 million is from private insurer Aung Thisar Oo Co.
According to Lin Oo, Deputy General Manager, Fire and Engineering Works Insurance Section, Myanma Insurance said “Kandawgyi Palace will claim insurance for the repairing. But it takes time to calculate because it is partially damaged”. Kandawgyi Palace Hotel, owned by Tay Za, Myanmar famous tycoon, is situated on bank of Kandawgyi Lake. He is notorious for his closer ties with the former Military government. Colonial era hotel has a long standing history, featuring teakwood as its structure. It was designed based on traditional Myanmar architecture. Part of the hotel was built in 1930s incorporating a colonial era British rowing club. Developed by the Bangkokbased Baiyoke Group of Hotels, Tay Za bought the hotel in 2010 for an estimated $29 million.
