Families spend night in the cold as fire razes slum in Loresho

Property worth thousands of shillings went up in smoke when a fire razed several households in an informal settlement in Loresho, Nairobi County.

The fire, which residents of the informal settlement known as Shanty said caught them unawares, started sometime after eight o’clock on Tuesday and burnt down scores of houses and business premises, and left three injured.

The situation according was not made any better by the delay in the arrival of help from the county fire department.

“The fire is alleged to have started in one of the hotels in the slum. However we are not sure what its cause was,” said Joyce Nekesa, a resident, whowas not certain where her family would spend the night despite salvaging a few items from her house.

She said it took too long for the fire engines to get to the scene of the fire and the engines that came they soon ran out of water even before getting the fire under control.

The area, according to Ms Nekesa, has no sufficient water for household purposes, let alone putting out a fire.

The residents decried the lack of fire equipment and personnel in the area, saying that it would be practical if the county government stationed a standby fire engine in the area in case of similar mishaps.

“Despite the fire starting at about eight o’clock, the first fire engine arrived at the scene more than an hour later. And it did not have enough water to fully put out the fire, it has taken about four of these engines to put the fire under some control,” said James Anyona, who works as a night guard in the area.

Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, who arrived at the scene later on, acknowledged the residents’ grievances, including lack of fire engines, as well as preparedness for similar incidents and pledged that the county government will address their plight.