A raging mid-morning fire at Mukuru kwa Reuben slums sent large plumes of smoke billowing across the urban ghetto of Nairobi on Tuesday as county firefighters delayed and failed to arrive at the scene to battle the flames on time.
Shocking views of the fire tearing across several residential shanties and spreading quickly to multiple row houses stoked fears that an already dangerous fire could threaten the more populated parts of the slum, with over 40 houses already razed to ashes.
“Everything inside the houses was either lost or damaged,” Justus Kiema, the area chief, said at a news conference. The fire was burning deep inside the structures, he said, and it had already caused the death of a child aged four.
The cause of the fire, which was still burning late into the afternoon, has not yet been determined. However, it is believed that it started because of an illegal electricity connection, exacerbated by an explosion of a cooking gas cylinder heard a few minutes after some residents noticed what appeared to be a fire that had started in one of the affected homes, Chief Kiema said.
Containing the fire is difficult because the houses in the slum are “sealed off,” with few routes or alleys for residents trying to extinguish the blaze to escape, he said.
With no firefighters or medical technicians on site, residents have continued to appeal for urgent help from Nairobi City County, fearing the fire might consume even more homes if not contained quickly.
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