Sen David and Igor Kossov

A grass fire raged through a chicken farm in Preah Sihanouk province on Wednesday, destroying two coops and the chickens within and causing $10,000 in damage, according to provincial authorities. Forest and brush fires have ravaged Cambodia especially hard this dry season, the Ministry of Agriculture said in February. Dr Kao Dana, head of the ministry’s forestry management office, attributed most of these fires to human activities such as slash-and-burn farming.

Wednesday’s Preah Sihanouk blaze spread across the tall dry grass of Kompong Seila district before igniting the chicken farm belonging to proprietor Leang Song Hour, according to district military police official Som Samean. “Until now, we do not know what caused the fire, but it came from the grass nearby and spread to his farm. The water truck came immediately but we could not save [the farms],” said Samean. “Two chicken coops were completely destroyed and many chickens died.”

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/chicken-farm-razed-preah-sihanouk

Not so many years ago, this story would have had such a different meaning..........