Property worth Sh3 million was reduced to ashes when fire engulfed a house belonging to a medic within Kambandi area near Chuka town.
A permanent house and almost all the property therein were consumed by the mysterious fire before it was extinguished by Chuka County and Chuka University fire rescue teams.
The home owner Dr. Kinyua wa Nthimba, who operates a clinic in Chuka town, said he was in his place of work when he received a call from his sister informing him that his house was on fire.
“On arrival I was shocked to find neighbours struggling to save some items from the house while others were trying to put off the fire using water jericans and bathing bowls,” lamented Dr. Nthimba adding that the inferno was too fierce for the neighbours to handle.
He regretted that the fire engines did not arrive promptly to salvage some property but thanked God that no one was hurt.
Nthimba said his wife, a teacher and two daughters currently in universities had also left when fire started.
A neighbour Naomi Makena told KNA that she heard a loud explosion that she suspected to be from a gas cylinder before seeing smoke billowing from the house.
Makena said she screamed attracting other neighbours who rushed to the scene and helped to move out some items before fire spread to all the rooms. She said they desperately fought the fire using the available water before the fire Rescue team from the County Government arrived.
She said unfortunately the team ran out of water and by the time the Chuka University Fire Brigade arrived, the inferno had consumed almost everything.
Tharaka Nithi County Government Fire Rescue team leader Alex Mugambi regretted the devastating damaged caused by the fire and cautioned families against keeping gas cylinders within the house.
“We should learn to keep our gas cylinders in a small chamber outside the building and pipe the gas into the kitchen, since the major element that fanned the fire into uncontrollable limits was the explosion of gas cylinder in the building,” said Mugambi.
by Jackline Mwende
