Rescue crews are reaching a refugee camp in a remote area of Thailand where 36 people died in a fast-moving fire that also left 2 Thousand people homeless.

Earlier report put the body count as high as 62.  The fire was able to spread quickly as most of huts were made of bamboo sticks with dried grass for roofs. Most of the dead were women, the elderly and children.  About 200 people were injured and were being treated in hospital.

The camp was used by ethnic Karen refugees who fled Myanmar in 1992.  They had been unsuccessfully seeking greater autonomy ever since the former Burma achieved independence from Britain 65 years ago. 

They’ve been there so long that several generations had been born and raised in the refugee camps, and stayed there while Myanmar began instituting democratic reforms, even though the Karen National Union reached a peace accord with Yangon last year.