Traders incur heavy losses after midnight fire

By Bob Aston

A huge fire erupted on Saturday at 2:00 am at Sipili bus terminal and gutted down a section of shopping stalls. Traders and residents who had gone to sleep when the fire started, had their nights cut short as alarm was raised over the burning shops.

Eye witnesses said that it was not easy to put out the fire because the wooden structures aggravated the situation since fire could easily spread in wood.

Residents looking at the destruction caused by the fire

Several people, who arrived at the scene to assist in the rescue mission, were forced to break into one of the shops and demolished the structures to prevent the fire from spreading to the rest of the shops.

The cause of the fire has not been established yet, it is a mystery that needs to be unruffled to the residents as each one gives out a different story from the other.

More than six (6) shopkeepers in the line among them Michael, commonly referred by the residents as “Mike wa gazeti” were unable to salvage their property. Businesses and livelihoods of the traders and their families have been badly affected. The affected traders have now started the process of rebuilding their shops.

The Saturday night’s case adds to the grim statistics of fire incidences occurring frequently in sipili. Though fire incidents have been on the rise in the area, nothing has been done to avert the same from happening in future.

The question that is now lingering in resident’s mind is what and how will the County government control or prevent any further fire outbreaks in the future. The residents are now calling on the Laikipia County Government to buy fire fighting equipments as well as a fire truck to prevent future occurrence.