Chinese embassy in Myanmar as well as Chinese companies working in the country donated on Friday a bulk of relief materials to fire victims left homeless through a recent major fire in Yangon.

Representing the embassy and the companies, Chinese ambassador Guan Mu presented the materials to Myanmar Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Major-General Sein Htwa at a ceremony held at the ministry.

The relief materials worth of 15 million kyats (about US$15,000) include clothing, daily necessities and medicines.

Guan expressed sympathy over the fire victims who lost their homes, while Sein Htwa said thanks to the Chinese side for the donation, briefing the donors the story of the fire that left 1,700 households with a total number of 9,000 people homeless.

Taking care by Chinese Economic and Commercial Counselor Tang Hai and representatives of the Chinese companies, the relief materials were immediately transported to the victims resettled at a government-arranged relief camp opened at a suburban area in the new satellite town of Shwepyithar in Yangon where an industrial zone locates.

A relief camp supervisory official told Xinhua that a total of about 1,600 households with over 7,000 victims have been resettled there and relief work is underway.

According to the fire victims, land plots are being allotted by the government to them for rebuilding their houses.

A major three-hour fire, that razed a slum quarter of Hlaing in a suburban area in Yangon on November 28, burned down a total of 1,557 small wooden and bamboo-walled houses due to negligence originated from a sports-shoe home industry, however causing no human death, according to earlier official reports.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2005)