An inferno at Kipchimat supermarket in Bomet town on Sunday destroyed goods worth millions of shillings and caused lots of disruption in neighboring businesses.
The fire broke out in the wee hours of the night at around 3 am on Sunday and razed down the entire property.
Following the unfortunate event, the business community in Bomet called on the county government to procure more fire engines and further equip the Disaster management department as it took the intervention of the Kericho team to put out the fire that wiped out everything in the supermarket.
Agness Cherotich, a tenant of the Guttered Supermarket told KNA that she got the information of the fire at 4.30 am that for her nothing was salvaged from the inferno.
“It was around 4.30 am when I was informed of this unfortunate incident and it saddens me that nothing was saved. We don’t know where to start again and we have not so far established the cause of the fire nor do we know the worth of goods the tenants have lost,” she said.
Stanley Mutai, a disaster officer in Bomet County said efforts to put off the fire were futile as the fire spread out fast covering the entire building within a short period.
“It took us, the disaster team, and the Kenya Red cross from Bomet and Kericho almost three hours to put out the fire. The property is now safe though nothing was saved from the fire,” explained the disaster officer.
The cause of the fire is yet to be established but preliminary reports indicate it might have been caused by an electricity fault within the premises.
By Lamech Willy. A.
