There has been a streak of ravaging fire incidents in the country, of recent; starting from the major cities of Basse and Brikama to the latest in the coastal city of Bakau, which has experienced two incidents in less than a week.
Last weekend’s fire outbreak in Bakau Newtown South ravaged an entire house in Jatta Kunda, leaving the occupants to rue over charred remains.
The fire, which broke out on Saturday at about 1:00am was reported to have been caused by power failure, and resulted to a loss of valuables worth two million Dalasi. However, there were no casualties.
In an interview with one Omar Njie in the neighbourhood, he said there was water shortage when the incident occurred and so they depended on a reserved water in a tank from a nearby compound to put out the fire. This lack of direct and immediate access to water was what scaled up the level of destruction.
He called on government to empower the fire service personnel with proper vehicles to enable them adequately quell such fire disasters.
Aja Suwareh Jatta, a younger sister to the victim, confirmed that his brother has lost almost everything to the fire. She itemised the valuables consumed by the fire as: money, laptop, flat screen, national documents, school, university with other institution certificates, compound documents, radio, foam, bed, mobile phones, shoes, clothes and lot more.
She took the opportunity to praise Allah and to thank the neighbours for their support, and the fire brigade from Churchill’s Town for their intervention.
In a separate incident, fire ravaged a store in the Bakau market last weekend. In an interview, the officer commanding, market manager and all the officers on duty attested to the aggressive nature of the inferno.
Having thanked and expressed faith in Allah, Ajaratou Mundaw, owner of the store, thanked the neighbours most especially the youth of Bakau as well the fire brigade in Churchills Town for their help.
The Public Relations Officer of the Gambia Fire and Rescue Services, Pateh Gibba explained that the fire was caused by a left-over lit charcoal in a small stove, which was later blown away by a sudden wind, reaching some furniture around the place. He said the store is situated in a nearby second-hand furniture and other wooden substances around the market according to our investigations. Gibba admitted that their station in Bakau is not quite functional; hence affecting effective service delivery. He informed that they had to rely on the rescue teams from Kotu and Serrekunda for the operation.
While acknowledging the increasing incidents of fire outbreaks in the country and the limited resources for firefighting and rescue operations, the PRO called for responsible behaviour and safety and preventive actions on the part of the public.
"We cannot be burning our markets all the time. Fire incidents are not for fun. We have a limited capacity and so people should make sure they do safety check-ups of their markets, stores, offices, houses or even kitchens to minimise such occurrences".
