Fire outbreak leaves family of nine homeless

By Omar Bah A fire outbreak in London Corner Saturday left a family of nine homeless and destroyed belongings amounting to over seven hundred thousand dalasi. According to family sources the fire which gutted three rooms and a sitting room started from a suspicious electrical fault following a power outage. “The fire started around 2:45 whiles I was still in bed. There was an abnormal smell that erupted in the bedroom,” said Saikou Juwara, the compound owner. He said after noticing the smell he immediately went to the parlour to find out what was going on, saying “I tried to open the door but I couldn’t see the key because the room was very dark, that’s the time I opened the back door to scale the fence to wake the rest of the compound. “When we initially called the fire and rescue services, they did not pick; that’s the time I sent my friend to Kotu to inform them about the fire. “I’m grateful to God though because there were no causalities apart from one of the fire rescue services personnel who sustained an injury. I was also fortunate that my two-week-old baby and the mother were not in the house on that very day,” he said. He continued: “I have lost over two hundred thousand dalasi which includes other valuable materials. The same thing applies to my neighbors who also lost everything ranging from books, bags of rice, and school certificates among others”. “We are all homeless as we speak, because we lost everything that we have. I’m affected yes, but I really feel sorry for my tenants because they cannot afford to regain what they lost during the fire incident,” he added. He appealed to the government and philanthropists to give them a helping hand. “In the same vein I will also like to call on the national water and electricity company (NAWEC) to look into the country’s electricity system, because power outages are causing a lot of havoc recently,” he concluded.]]>